I ate a banana and some yogurt before leaving the Carrion monastery this morning. The guidebook warns that I'd be walking 18 km without any food available or even washrooms. I had a chunk of bread left over from grocery shopping yesterday so I threw it in my bag. The 1st 8 km was on a beautiful shaded path and since the air was cool the walking was quick and easy. A medic van drove slowly by us, asking if we needed help. This is the 1st time I've seen anything like this on any of the routes. There were 3 paramedics onboard and on of the pilgrims asked for help with his tendinitis. One of the guys called the problem in to a doctor (I'm assuming that's who he called) and they treated him.
The remainder of the 10 km looked pretty much like you see in this picture. At one point there was a guy in a trailer selling coffee and fruit. He was also playing loud music from American pop charts and it was a great bit of entertainment to break up the monotony. The rest of the time I found myself making rhythms with my walking poles to keep me in the groove.
I reached Calzadilla by noon, just as the sun was threatening to really spoil my fun. It was decision time for a lot of people at the little restaurant in the town. I sat under the awning drinking a Coke (yes I said Coke and nothing's ever tasted so good!) and looking out at the sun thinking, "I really don't want to stay here and I really don't want to leave". It was 6 km to the next town. A couple of fellows from Colorado told me about an alternative path where there were supposed to be some trees. Figuring if there's shade I can do this, I set out. There was no shade and in fact there were no other people or yellow arrows either and after about an hour I didn't even know if I was still on the Camino. I started thinking that the vultures would be circling soon and the wolves having me for dinner (are there wolves in Spain?) when I finally came to a road and back on the Camino path. From there it was 2 km into Ledigos.
The Albergue here is fairly typical. I've been to much nicer ones and worse ones too. The check-in process includes getting your pilgrim passport stamped and paying the fee for the night's stay. After that the 1st thing on the agenda is to claim a bed and preferably a bottom bunk. Theres me in the far corner by the window. I have a specially treated bedbug sheet which goes on before my sleeping bag and also a special bedbug pillow case. Bedbugs are to be taken seriously. I even shower with lavender soap because they don't like the smell apparently. Next comes doing the laundry which is washed by hand in a laundry tub. Even if you think, "I'll just lie down for an hour 1st", it's a bad idea because there's only so many sun hours left for drying time. There you have the agenda; day after day after day. I have one added activity of updating my blog, which doesn't always get published because there's no wireless, as is the case today. Another day on the Camino.
I am sure that you have set some kind of record of number of days without rain. All pilgrims talk about, and many vidoes on U-tube show, pilgrims walking in cold wet rain.
ReplyDeleteAre there any issues with re-charging your Ipod? Have there been any language issues with trying to order food? Do the walking sticks really come in handy?