Friday 19 September: villaged out and porked out!

 There is a mountain storm overnight with sheet lightning and thunder and the odd shower. I don’t sleep well worrying about forest fires! But we seem to be safe under our canopy of Indian Bean and Horse Chestnut trees. We leave stuff at base camp but set off on a tour of the local mountain villages. We start off however climbing 12km of sinuous roads up to the monastery at Pena de Francia at 1732m. It’s quite chilly and windy at the top but great views through the haze of Extramadura to the south and Portugal to the west. Then to a series of delightful old villages: a medieval world of half timbered stone houses, flowers cascading from balconies and even a small village bullring. We visit San Martin del Castanar and Miranda del Castanar, Mogarraz with its series of portraits of past and present residents by a local artist that adorn the houses and finally La Alberca where we stop for a late lunch. Upstairs in Restaurante El Encuentro it feels very authentic. Everyone is Spanish and only Spanish is spoken. We order with the help of google translate and meaty potato and meaty bean stew as starters and then pig in various forms: tenderloin and feather steak. It’s tender and tasty but quite meat heavy and no vegetables! Later Simon has a craving to cycle down the sinuous road so we drive back up to the top of Pena Francia again and he cycles home while I drive. He’s probably quicker than me although unfortunately it’s got rather windy and overcast so perhaps not as glorious a swoop as it could have been. Back at base the weather feels a bit changeable and the flies are out! We’re off to Zamora tomorrow but think we might drop in to Salamanca on the way as we pass so close.