What the hell am I doing here?!

OMG. How exhausting! Ist day on the Camino Via de la Plata and walked 28kms in searing heat and so much nothingness. Even though we started before dawn, we made a few stops, so it took much longer than anticipated. We stopped at the 12th century monastery in Camas and wandered around for about an hour looking at all the beautiful frescoes that have been uncovered. It is being restored and there was so much to see in their beautiful and extensive gardens
Next stop was the Roman city of Italica just outside Santiponce. It is the birthplace of Hadrian and one of the earliest Roman settlements in Spain (206 BC) I cannot describe the feeling of actually standing amongst such history, tracing the footsteps of gladiators around the tunnels underneath and just standing in the middle looking at the amphitheatre. This place was SO worth a visit!

The rest of the day was spent wandering along a very long and open gravel path in searing midday heat because we had stopped to look at that stuff. There is no towns along the way so we had no choice but to keep going. Colleen and I both have sun reflective umbrellas which are an absolute god send and the best Thing I brought with me! We underestimated the heat and distance-just naive I guess-but we finally dragged our weary bodies into town where we met our first Camino Angel who gave us a huge bottle of water and brought out some chairs for us to sit on and rest.