May 21st-22nd Fonfria to Alcanices

May the 21st

Fonfria to Alcanices

I was up late as I had had a hard day yesterday. I packed and left the rucksack on the porch, jamming my stick so the door didn’t close just in case I needed to go back in. I then walked all the way back through the village to the bar and dropped the key in the box. I took a photo of the bar then walked back and took another of the nice albergue, it was a pity about the water but it had been no real problem. I was very thankful to have found one as nice as this, as I could have been sleeping out last night! Thank you people of Fronfria and I hope your plumber solves the water problem soon!
I used the toilet, closed the door and headed up to the main road and turned left along it.


I found the Camino seemed to run parallel till Fornillos de Aliste so I stayed most of the time on the road as the rucksack pulled easily.












There was not too much traffic at first and I made good time but was dying for a coffee and some breakfast when I saw I could take a slip road into Fornillos de Aliste. This village had a bar and I think it was a hostel or hotel too. To my surprise it was open but I had to lift my rucksack up a steep flight of steps but it was well worth it for a good coffee and a great tostada. The bar was big with a couple of customers leaning against it and the girl behind was friendly too. As I left I asked a truck driver who was just starting up his truck, if the village road I was on joined the main road and it did so I kept going and soon joined it. It was relatively flat and soon I could see snow on the mountains in the distance! I made good time to Ceadea by lunchtime. I was just outside the village when my phone rang and to my surprise I was able to answer it. As always, it was lovely to hear and talk to Maisie and I told her of the snow-capped mountains I could see in the distance. I didn't mention it to her but I was thinking that they could be in Portugal where I have to cross them sometime! The traffic was heavy at this moment as I was still on the main road making it difficult to talk at times. She rang off as I entered the village. My problem now was I had little with me to eat and I could see nothing like a shop, but to one side of a building there were some stone tables and seats in a field of long grass. I went in and got out what I had and put it on the granite table. At least I had a seat to sit on and it was quite pleasant there. I finished eating, when a van tooted it's horn as it came down the road just the other side of the fence and stopped at the junction. I had read on the side as it went past, 'fruit and vegetables' in Spanish so I hurried to a little gate in the fence and let myself out into the road and ran to the van and asked the girl what she had on board! The young lady was very pleasant and helpful and she got out and opened up the van and showed me her stock and I bought two bananas and a couple of apples and an orange! I remember I tried a super strawberry, sneaked off the pile of them chuckle, but decided they might not travel too well. I would have loved to buy more fruit but I thought the weight would be too much. I ate the orange and one banana and packed my bag and set off again.





At one place I noticed some fields with stone or slate boundary fences, but what puzzled me most was that the fields were so narrow. I felt there must be a reason but I never did find out why this was.





















I came into the tiny village of Vivinera, crossed the road, followed the arrows and walked on the Camino through the village.






But on leaving the village the track became very muddy and I chose to cross a field to the road that I could now see on my right on the other side of a stone wall. I made it over the rough ground, picked up my pack and managed to climb the wall and the ditch. Then I used the road again until Alcanices.





As I came near the first buildings I stopped in the entrance into a big yard. Here I stood looking at my small book to see if there were any tips as to where the albergue might be. A pickup truck pulled up and the driver asked me what I was looking for. I told him the albergue and he jumped out
"Jump in I'll take you there"
He grabbed my rucksack and threw it in the back! I climbed in beside him. It wasn't all that far and he dropped me off outside as the caretaker was unbolting the doors. I gathered he had been the person the driver was chatting to on the phone as we drove there chuckle. I thanked him and he lifted out my pack and drove off down the street!

I was now welcomed in by Jenero the caretaker.

We filled in the paper work and he stamped my credencial and took me to a nice room with a half dozen bunk beds in. He said I could chose any one, then showed me the wash rooms. There was no one else in the place and he had not seen any peregrinos so Janis still wasn't here and I puzzled over where he could be as I washed my gear. When all was washed I took them outside and hung them on a line hanging between two pine trees at the end of the building. I think I took a nap or at least put my feet up then for a while, because later I went out the front door and lent on the rail and looked up the road as Janis came walking over the hill! I helped him and Jenero fill in the forms (Janis never had a credencial and Jenero tried to get one for him and phoned around but with no success. Janis told me that when I had not turned up after he'd left me, he had camped at the next village in a ladies garden! I think he had gone to see the church and he had found a small bar! In there he had asked if he could put up the tent anywhere. Today he had walked on to Fonfria where he had talked to the lady in the bar. She had said that I had reached there last night so then he had walked all the way to Alcanices. That’s well over 30 kms, and he was in a very bad state with huge blisters on the balls of his feet!
Jenero told us where we could get medical help and I went with Janis to translate! It wasn't far away and two charming ladies cleaned and bandaged both feet with first some strange foam padding with an antiseptic coating on it. Next a cotton-stretch bandage was bound over the top! Unfortunately Janis could hardly put his sandals on, let alone his boots now! He was also told to rest the feet for a day or two before commencing the Camino again! No charge was made for the bandage or the treatment!
We returned to the albergue and not long after we went down the very steep hill into the town, as we needed food and had to find a place to eat. While there we managed find a shop to get the pages of Janis's instructions copied out of his book as far as to Ourense, so in theory I should be able find my way now!

Then we had a beer and tapas as our evening meal and poor Janis now had to climb painfully up that hill again!
I had intended to go on next day and text Maisie as much but later I felt that maybe I should stay to help Janis. I preferred to have him as company and it would do no harm to rest my body too! Jenero treated us to a beer and the three of us chatted for a while till an early bedtime!

May the 22nd

Alcanices

When I awoke I felt glad I had decided to stay here for one more night. Janis and I spent a lot of the day walking the town at different times to eat and have coffee. It was hopeless to say don’t walk because you had to if you wanted to eat! We got locked out the albergue too I remember, and had to wait till Jenero returned I think that was after his lunch time!

I did go on my own one time and walked most streets as a tourist. My book said that here on the 12th of September 1279 a celebrated peace treaty between the Kingdom of Castile and Leon and the kingdom of Portugal was signed and the village then took the King's name Alcanices! The clock tower is worth a look, it is one of the old town wall towers I believe. Oh, and I seem to remember it tolls the hour twice!!






I never found any of the churches open to look inside them.










I took a photo from low down and a long way off of the albergue.











I also found one good tapas bar chuckle! Here over coffee I got talking to a painter and had a lot of laughs with him, and later, when Janis and I returned to eat, we found this bar again! Janis wanted to try everything so we did, including frogs legs!






I never knew they were eaten in Spain but it seems they are quite often here and in the north anyway! I must admit they weren't bad, a bit like chicken! I think I ate the most and it might have been that or something else I ate that upset my tummy a little bit again later as I went to bed! Jenero let us use his computer and I sent emails home to Maisie and around the world to many of my friends as we drank a few more beers with him and ate a cold pizza, then turned in for the night