In the last couple of days it has become clear that this is not the year that we complete the Camino from Seville to Santiago. A few days back, we started from Mérida, heading north as always. We hit the only two possible intermediate stopping points before noon. The more viable one, Aljucen, according to the books, was pretty much a dead zone at just before noon. We didn't see the albergue, nor did any bar/restaurant/Cafe look like it was open. As it wasn't 12 yet, we just headed on. This was a mistake; the remaining 19 km were a solid stretch of no rest stops, only a few trees and rocks, and very little shade. When we got to the next place, Alcuescar, and found the monastery, we had racked up 39 km for the day. Oops.
We stayed at the monastery overnight, enjoying a communal meal that involved pasta salad, hot dogs, cold tomato soup, and rennet pudding. (Thanks to the hospitalero and fellow travelers who put that together!) Then we crawled into bed.
The next morning, my leg was bothering me, but we were in the back end of nowhere so I just soldiered on.
Found an open bar for coffee, there was an albergue there but my brains hadn't caught up from the previous day, so we continued on to Valdesalor, for a day total of 26 km.
The next day it was obvious that no walking would happen. We took the local bus the 10 km into Cáceres, found a place, and settled in gor a couple of nights to see if the leg would settle down. It didn't. We have decided to accept reality and suspend our Camino for this year.
We are going to cut the trip short and do some determined resting and healing. God willing, we will return to this Camino.
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