I awoke at 5am for no reason at all. I tried to go back to sleep and couldn't, so I decided I could go out to the front area and stretch. I did that and then my two Austrian friends Milford and Rudolph (Rudy) got up and got packed up. It was still dark , but we knew there was a Repsol station up on the carretera (highway) that had a bar that opened at 6am, so they headed over there and I followed a few moments later. I don't understand how they left first. I always get my pack ready the night before with water bladder filled, clothes all packed up (I sleep in the clothes I walk in the next day,) everything in except my sleep sack and toothbrush. And yet every time people who get up much after me are out the door before me. Never fails.
By the time I got to the café, they were almost done, and ready to move out. I had my café con leche and left shortly after them. It was a beautiful morning with blue skies, crisp air and the sun arising. The landscape was beautiful. Some trees other than scrub oak. And fields full of soft wheat and wild flowers. I have to admit I am not a botanist. The only trees I know I could identify are palm trees and eucalyptus trees, and now maybe scrub oak trees. The only flowers I know I could identify are lilies, roses and daisies. So sad. Though I didn't know much about beach critters before two years ago and now I've learned a lot.
We got to Valdesalor about 9:30. I had originally planned to stop there for the night and walk to Cáceres the next day, then rest until my knee felt better. It was only 6.8 miles, it was still so early, and my knee felt pretty good, so I decided to go on to Cáceres it was another 6.8 miles of uninteresting pre city landscaped filled with lots of ups and downs and rocky surfaces. Not a pretty walk at all. In fact when we stopped just outside Valdesalor for a cold drink, we saw three Japanese females getting off a bus with back packs and beginning to walk. While enjoying our cold drinks we pondered why, of you were going to take a bus to a starting point, you would pick Valdesalor. Why not just go straight to Cáceres? One if the guys posited that maybe they had heard it was a beautiful walk. As I walked it I thought, if they thought this was going to be a beautiful walk, they must have been sorely disappointed.
I saw two of the Japanese later on the trail. I wondered what happened to the third. There were two young women, probably late teens or early twenties. They were carrying packs bigger than most men carry. Unless they were loaded with feathers, they must have weighed thirty pounds. And these young women were not large. When I saw them they had been resting and one of them had her pack on a rock and was trying to put it on and get up. I guess she was eventually successful.
I ended up meeting up with my pals on the outskirts of the city where there was a fork in the road and they had been pondering which way to go. Milford had already headed down the path to the right, which was the path I thought was indicated by the yellow arrow. Being the Queen of Lost, I'm never really sure of my conclusions on these directional things. I think my brain lacks some orientation device. I swear I could get lost in my own bathroom. I never know which way is North. Anyway, we all go right and eventually we see on of the cement directional blocks and know we are on the right path. As we get into the city, we follow the yellow arrows which lead is directly to a private hostal, where we do not want to be. During this time we encounter and older Japanese woman, probably in her forties, we surmise she is the third member of the group that got off the bus. Very clever, aren't we? She points at a map and says albergue. We say yes we are looking for it. It is clear she speaks no Spanish and very little English. I can't imagine the courage it would take to do the Camino Frances, never mind the Via de la Plata not speaking either English or Spanish. As a woman reporter said to me in China when I went there during the SARS commotion, "you are very brave." I responded, "or very foolish." I did get lost twice when I was wandering without the tour guide and it was a little scary. It didn't matter if there were street signs, because I couldn't have read them. A map would obviously be useless. I found my way both times, but for the most part I had a guide.
We started asking directions, and because Rudolph understand what people meant by carretera, we wandered for awhile. We were all at that point in the day when we just wanted to get to where we are staying, drop our packs, and take off our boots. By the way it was in the mid 90s by this time. Eventually he understood they just meant the busy stree and we were to follow it to the old part of the town. So we proceed with our Japanese pilgrim in tow. I don't know if the directions we were given included the information, that at the end of the carretera, the old town was at the top of a big ass hill and the climb was about 50 degrees. Yikes. But we got up. There haven't been any arrows or markers of any kind, anywhere since the last bogus arrow that pointed to the front door of the Hostal. Rudolph and Milford are moving so fast, there is no time to check maps. We continue to ask direction and finally one an leads us to the Plaza Mayor. The albergue is not far from there. It still takes us a little more meandering and requests for directions to find the albergue.
We arrive and are getting our rooms and the Japanese woman explains she has two companions that are coming. I translate that into Spanish to the owner. Some where during this exchange she realizes she is in the wrong albergue. She is supposed to meet her two companions at the municipal albergue. She leaves to find it. I have no idea how she was going to do that, but she had a large iPad open and it said, "Municipal Albergue" on the screen. So maybe she had Google Maps.
We checked in and got our beds. The owner said I could stay two nights, no problem. The place is very nice and even has a nice garden patio in the back with a couch where I iced my knee. I went to the Plaza Mayor and had some yummy food, a Acadia and shrimp on a bed of lettuce and baked meet in a tomato sauce. Then I went to the pharmacy to get the bandages Antonio used last year to wrap my knee. They didn't have the stretchy one. I went to another pharmacy and they didn't have it either. They directed me to the ortho store. They didn't have it either, but they had KT tape which is stretchy so it might work. I don't understand. This tape was easy to find on the Camino Frances two year ago. I don't know if it is passage of time or change of location that makes it unavailable. He also had one of those bands that go below the knee, so I got one of those and I wearing it.
ThenI went home, read and took a shower and went to bed. The bummer about taking a rest day for a leg or knee injury is that you can't really have optimal healing if you all around sight seeing. 
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