My week in Spain took me from Seville to Los Santos de Maimona.

Walking along The Via De La Plata

The Via de la Plata is the longest of the pilgrim routes in Spain, starting from Seville in Andalucia, and running northwards through the proviinces of Extremadura and Castilla y Leon to Salamanca and Zamora.

Day 1  Seville to Guillena … 23km

Day 2 Guillena to Castilblanco de los Arroyos …19km

Day 3 Castilblanco to Almaden de le Plata ….28km

Day 4 Almaden de la Plata to Monesterio ….38km

Day 5 Monesterio to Fuente de Cantos….. 22km

Day 6 Fuente de cantos to Santos de Maimona …..31km

Total distance walked was 161km but this did not include the miles we walked looking for food, bars,and free wi-fi connections so I certainly broke my 100 mile target 🙂

It was an amazing week and once again I cannot find the words to thank Geoff enough for giving me this fantastic opportunity.

Today was my last walking day and my birthday too
We had a nice 22km walk planned. Into zafra.where the plan was to find a nice hotel and enjoy a meal to celebrate my birthday
On arriving in zafra after a real enjoyable walk we found the place heaving with people due to a local fair . There was no place to stay so we had to carry on to los santos de maimona just another 5km but by the time we arrived my legs were in agony from sun burn again .
So tonight we find ourselves in a youth hostel all on our own sleepng on a mattress on the floor and just a trickle of cold water for a shower .
We are now back in town looking for food . Certainly a birthday I will not forget.

Geoff had a plan…..

We were going to spend a week together in Cambridge before he went off to Seville to do his 1000km walk.

The walk is known as The Via de la Plata/The Camino Mozarabe or The Silver Way and is a variant of The Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

Its also the longest of the many alternative routes.

Then yesterday the plan changed….

I am now flying out to Seville with him on Sunday and will spend a week walking with him.

Hopefully we shall get as far as Merida then I will leave him to come home and he will carry on with his walk.

Merida is 140 miles from Seville and I am not sure we can expect to get there in 6 days.

The town before that is Zafra and at a distance of 100 miles may be more achievable.

My only concern and its a huge one… is getting back from Merdia or Zafra to Seville airport all on my own..   seeing as I don’t speak any Spanish.

So once again Geoff is pushing me out my comfort zone and I wonder if he has any idea how worried I am about this .

When we set off on our walk Emily and Mark will be setting out to walk The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a distance of 750km.

Their  first ever big walk 🙂

Geoff is hoping to meet up with them when they finish their walk in  Santiago de Compostela but to do this means he has to walk 20 miles every single day which in his words is "unlikely "

A very strange coincidence too that JMB should do a book review this week…  maybe she was being psychic and knew before I did that I would be going off to Spain 🙂

We managed to fit all these things into our Sunday.

It started off with a 15 mile walk from Grantchester with the Cambridge Rambling club.

It was a perfect sunny day and you could be forgiven for thinking it was the middle of summer.

We did a circular walk via Toft taking in some beautiful countryside, the blackberries were in abundance but I resisted the urge to collect more.

On returning to Grantchester, Vera the walk leader provide us with a wonderful spread of home made scones ,raspberry and apple pie and a wicked chocolate cake too.

After saying our goodbyes we walked back into Cambridge via Grantchester meadows making our walking mileage 20 miles for the day.

The walking route and more photos can be seen here

We then made our way to the Jesus Green outdoor pool, where it was the last swim of the season.

Geoff has swam here 56 times through the season but much to my disappointment I have not swam so much this year.

This weekend though I did get a  swim Saturday and Sunday, the water was very cold but refreshing too :-) 

Then it was a dash home to put our posh clothes on and head out to Anstey Hall to join Paul and Kate, to celebrate their wedding.

A truly wonderful day 🙂

Just returned from a nice few days In Bantry West Cork.

We went to walk The Sheep’s Head Way, which is a 55 mile circular walk from Bantry.

A peaceful,unspoilt peninsula which has some of Ireland’s most beautiful scenery.

Day One… Bantry to Kilcrohane

We set out along the north side of the peninsular, in drizzly rain not quite sure knowing what to expect.

Our first impression was that not many people do this walk as the path was over grown and the ground very boggy.

Half way through our first day we had to stop and change our socks, as feet and boots were soaking wet from all the bog hopping.

Thankfully the rain had stopped by now but at that moment in time I really thought we would be turning back at the end of the day.

Its well way marked although some of the posts can be hard to find.

At 18.30 we saw ourselves walking across the peninsular to Kilcrohane Village after a very boggy 20 miles.

We stayed at the Bridgeview House and sampled the beer and Irish singing in the local pub.

Day Two Kilcrohane to Kilcrohane via Ahakiska.

After a good nights sleep we woke to a nice sunny day.

The owner of Bridgeview house drove us back over to the north side of the peninsular so we could carry on from where we left off.

A lift much appreciated as it would have been a long uphill start to the day.

I was looking forward to this days walking as this was meant to be the best part of the walk with splendid views all round.

I was not disappointed the views were fantastic and the walking route was good  still boggy in places but nothing compared to day one.

Right at the end of the peninsular is a small lighthouse then 2km back into the walk along the south side is a most welcome cafe selling teas/coffee/soup/sandwiches and homemade cakes.

We arrived back in Kilcrohane at 17.00 and as it was such a nice sunny evening Geoff suggested we carry on to the next village  Ahakiska, which was 4 miles away.

We arrived at 18.30 only to find no rooms available so we headed to the pub for a drink and to see if they could give us any information on accommodation.

By this time and after 22 miles I was feeling slightly tired,and I must have looked it too as the only other couple in the pub decided we must be mad.

They had a good joke with us about our predicament  and once they realised we were going to have to walk back to Kilcrohane they did not hesitate to offer us a lift.

So back we went to Kilcrohane and stayed at the Bayview Inn where we had the honeymoon room and some fabulous food.

Day Three … Kilcrohane to Bantry

After another good nights sleep we set off from Kilcrohane once again and in lovely sunshine too.

My aching legs soon loosened up which pleased me as I knew this was another long day with a lot of road walking too.

This time when we reached Ahakiska we did a slight detour to go and visit the Air India Memorial.

We arrived in Durrus after getting very frustrated at not being able to find the way markers through some fields.

We had lunch in Durrus before returning to Bantry through fields and along roads, some of these roads felt never ending and my feet began to ache from the road walking.

At about 18.30 just as we were walking into Bantry , who should we bump into but the lady from the pub at Ahakiska.

She stopped to talk to us and once again told us we must be mad  and at that moment I thought I must be too as my legs and feet had never ached so much.

Total of 64 miles walked in 3 days.

Photos can be seen here and here

Sheeps Head Trail – Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

I would love to know if anyone else has ever walked the whole of this walk and not just the tip of the peninsular.

On Sunday we took ourselves off to Stanton in Suffolk .

My friend Tessa was leading the Newmarket Ramblers group on there 12 mile Sunday walk.

She was surprised to see us and I got a nice surprise too as a friend of mine from the Cotswold’s was also at the walk.

Now its been so long since I saw him that I had trouble remembering his name… I am sure it was Brian… but then it could have been Boris, Bernie or even Barry :-).

The walk took us along the two Grundles… 

With regards to The Grundle, the book "Suffolk’s Ancient Sites and Historical Places" by Mel Birch, says…
"South of the village street, The Grundle – a gull formed as a result of melting ice at the end of the last Ice Age- was utilised in earlier times as a sunken way and remains today as a public path.

From Geoff’s dictionary the definition of a Grundle …  A fish  🙂

We really enjoyed the day , a great walk in brilliant sunshine with tea and scones to finish with, thanks to Brian, Boris, Bernie or what ever his name is…….

The walk route can be seen here

Like a good girlfriend, I was up at 5am to make Geoff coffee and see him off on his 80 mile COW (Cambridge to Oxford ) Walk.

He left at 6am in the rain and the first day proved to be a challenge, not only did it rain but it poured making for very wet walking conditions.

This resulted in a drive out to Wimpole hall for me, to deliver a few extra pairs of clean dry socks 🙂

Geoff then spent the first night, after walking 31 miles,in his tent which thankfully survived the storms and rain. 

He is now more than half way and I am glad to report that he’s been having great weather.

So far TheCow has taken him through Biggleswade, The Flit Valley, Clopton, Flitwick , Woburn and Great Brickhill.

To his delight it included the whole of Flitwick Moor too.

So its proving to be a very scenic walk and one he  is hoping many people will want to do.

As he plans to do a guide book for this walk.

Which is great news for me, as he will have to walk it a few more times, so I may just get a chance to go with him next time 🙂

After looking at these photos who would not want to do it ???

More photos can be seen here.

Watch this space for more details .

Yesterday Geoff came over for a Training walk before he goes off on his Cambridge to Oxford walk.

We did a circular walk from my house via Castle Acre.

A total of 18 miles.

I always enjoy visiting Castle Acre with Geoff as this is where we first met 🙂

We had delicious tea and cake at The Willow Cottage Tea Rooms.

I was amazed at how many glorious poppies we saw in the fields, a truly magnificent sight.

All photos can be seen here and the route here.

A great way to spend a Wednesday.