I slept in till 6:30 a.m. this morning in a quiet, other-than-by-me deserted private refugio in Villanueva de Campeán. I still saw the last stars twinkle out and beat the sunrise by an hour. Not long after, I noticed a mysterious dust cloud approaching. At eventually close range, it proved to be one dog, one lonely shepherd on foot, and about 100 sheep on a Camino collision course with me. A good sheep dog need not over police his flock. With the dog ranging freely and widely in the countryside about them, the sheep need only know that the dog can be called quickly in the by Shepherd’s commanding whistle. The Via de la Plata doesn’t just track ancient Roman silver mines road. It also tracks livestock trails as legendary as the American Southwest’s Santa Fe Trail. These famous drover roads classify as either Cañada Real, 50 meters wide, or Via Pecuria, narrower at only 25 meters in width. Inside these trail margins, livestock were free to graze grass at will. In the 1990s an effort was made to revive this tradition. So my Shepherd was following ancient custom.
I struck up a conversation with a man while crossing the ancient Roman Bridge into Zamora today. Friendly, he eventually decided to dispense with directions and walk with me all the way to the Cathedral. The city was great! I’ve reached Montamarta (KM 605) tonight.
