Camino: Day 14, reflecting on WOMAD

Sunday became a rest day for me. The German man had decided to walk and the German woman decided to rest her ankle problems for another day. It seemed reasonable to me to wait and go with her. In the end the man decided to wait too.

During the WOMAD festival I'd discovered my knee still hurt too much: I couldn't dance! So, this is why I chose a rest day. (Plus I'd had to stay up past midnight to see the Australian band 'the Barons of Tang', who were interesting...)

There are a few things I'd like to tell you about the festival, things that caught my attention:
Staying up: No matter what age a Spaniard is, they can and will stay up late, really late. I mean at home and elsewhere children are in bed by 8 or 9, and old people seem to choose this too. But in Spain I've seen toddlers and kids of all ages out (with parents) at midnight. And people beyond retirement ages too.

Haircuts: maybe it was the crowd attracted to WOMAD but Spain has more bad haircuts than anywhere I've ever been. Mullets, rats tails, undercuts, shaved off one side, dreadlocks of varying sizes on the same head, wacky fringes. This is on both guys and girls. But I like the spirit of it, I'm wondering if I should get an undercut and a wacky fringe?

Booze: apparently BYO to the festival isn't a problem. Young adults carried in 5 litres water bottles filled with wine which would be mixed with Coca-cola. They drank this from the biggest cups I've ever seen. See the picture below which shows the situation: almost everybody brought booze in.

The Spanish certainly know how to make a great fiesta!

Camino: Day 12 & 13; such luck!

My knee is getting better and better. Yesterday I hiked 11kms to a sleepy little village thinking I'd stop there the night. But, having reached there by midday I decided that it looked rather boring and since 11kms is enough for my knee I would take the bus to Caceres.

I'd heard wonderful things about the old city of Caceres, and it deserves all the applause. It is World Heritage listed and is impressive for its collection of medieval and renaissance architecture and history. It is simply beautiful, strolling the streets is a delight.

But! What is even more, I arrived to discover that the WOMAD festival is on here this weekend(!), and the town is pretty much sold out of accommodation. I got a hotel list from the tourist centre and started phoning and found a cheap pension on the plaza which had kept 2 rooms available for pilgrims. Just enough for me and my new German friends! So, being that WOMAD in Adelaide (Australia) had always been on my 'to do' list, I'm staying 2 nights.

How lucky am I! And, there's an Australian band playing tonight, called 'The Barons of Tang'.

Other delights are worth mentioning are from yesterday's camino. As I had mentioned, we've been following an old roman route and a stock route. The stock route is still used and yesterday I passed sheep going in the opposite direction (I had noticed a facility for sorting and loading sheep onto trucks at the edge of the last village).
Later I followed a hare down the road (I think it was a hare rather than a rabbit), I followed it from a distance of about 70m for about 100m until I stood on gravel that crunched underfoot and it bolted.

At one point I crossed a country aerodrome, which I imagine only sees activity on weekend with people whose hobby is flying. And later I viewed a castle in the distance.

Waiting in the small town of Valdesalor for the bus I guess I witnessed some of the effects of Spain's high unemployment : young men (a core group of 6 or 7) hanging about smoking in the bus shelter. 1pm on a Friday and it seems nobody had anything better to do. Most weren't just smoking cigarettes, and one was employed as he kept taking money from people as they came and went. Maybe he was selling places on a bus trip;)

Anyway, I'm very excited to be in Caceres for WOMAD.