Woke to the pittter patter of rain around 0515 but initially it didn't sound too bad. Then the thunder started and then very heavy rain! I stayed in bed in the hostal of mad, no, let's be kind, eccentric Elena and set 1000 as the Go/No Go point. Being Irish, rain is not a mystery to me and frankly if I never saw it again that would be great with me! By 0815 I was prepped but the sky was looking ominous despite a sliver of grey as opposed to black, in the North. I checked my mountain watch for compass direction... good, pressure check... rising ... all measurable signs good... so 0900 brekkie with Eccentric Elena then hit the trail, which was very wet. Amazingly I had a shadow by 1005 and in the afternoon it was 23C! The indirect nature of the Camino direction is hacking me off now. First leg was South East then East then North such that by 1 hour only a very large hill had been circumnavigated. A very long 40ish km day with highlight of the Caparra arch.
On the left the representation of the Caparra Arch used to indicate the Camino in Extramadura. The real thing is incredible and is really the only thing above ground in an entire Roman City. Somewhere in all this history I had walked 400Km!
