El Real de Jara to Monesterio
Soon after leaving La Jara we came across the ruins of an old Roman castle. We are now officially on the ancient Roman road or “ Ruta Via De La Plata” .
The Roman’s, Moors and Christian’s that travelled this path over thousands of years have left us a rich legacy (somewhat in ruins) of buildings, culture and food.
Today would be a very short day of only 19 km with half of it on a dirt road following in the footsteps of travellers over the ages. Along the way pigs grazed on acorns growing fat to become next years Jamon (ham). The wind was up providing for a much cooler ride, I did wish I pulled my thermal out, thou I’m not digging thru there now….. I’ll just suck it up …..keeping in touch with winter back home.
After leaving the Roman path we joined with the N630 . This was the secondary road that has been left all but deserted since the freeway nearby opened. When I say nearby sometimes you see it, mostly you don’t and it’s not an intrusion into the peaceful highway we now on.
Not long after leaving a truck stop café, Greg discovered he left his back pack at the previous stop. After a mad dash 4 km downhill it was safely retrieved. So easy to do with all the bits and pieces that come on and off.
About an hour later we arrived a Monesterio. This is the home to the jamon industry where they turn the black Iberian pig in yummy pig products. Unfortunately we turned up on some sort of area feast come holiday so we had to quickly raid the supermecardo for enough provisions to cook dinner tonight.
The albergue is on the edge of town, when I say edge it’s about a 3 minutes ride to the Main Street.
Carmen is out hospitelliar ( the people that manage albergues) and she is welcoming and friendly like she has been waiting all year just for us to turn up.
We are now in the less travelled Spain with most of the tourist being Spanish , a reason why I prefer these parts of Spain. So again out comes google translate. This app is so much more fun when it gets the sentence wrong. Sentences such “ are you with the party ladies” and “ the general of sentences has spoken “
We settle into our accommodation the set off to the supermecardo before it shuts and siesta takes over until the cool of the evening.
