Steve : Up late today. Breakfast was served from 6:30 and we made it around 7am. There had been a big rain storm in the night and I woke at one point to the sound of huge rain pellets hammering a corrugated metal roof. A lovely noise.

We were all a little low on enthusiasm when we set off, but we’d only got 20k to do today so… head down and get on with it.

We’d walked a whole 2.5 km before we came upon a sign advertising a veggie cafe serving healthy breakfasts.

We felt obliged to stop. We eat huge bowls of fruit salad and drink proper cappuccinos to the accompaniment of Johnny Cash blasting out over the town square.

An hour later, with very full bellies, and much improved moods, we were off.

J and I had an enthusiastic discussion as to whether Paul Simon was our favourite songwriter (dear reader, I have raised her in the way she should go…) which got us to Sahagun around 11am. It was getting hot.

Sahagun was taking down the bull barriers that lined the town streets. Apparently we’d just missed another bull running thing.

The casual animal torture that passes for cultural entertainment in northern Spain is baffling to us animal loving Brits. Maybe it’s a national blind spot – Americans have loony gun laws, Germans have no speed limits and we Brits have the House of Lords…

More Coke Zeros in Sahagun and we set off on the afternoon trudge long the roadside to Bercianos. Not a pleasant walk and far too hot.

My blisters are driving me nuts but, being a stubborn sort, my solution is just to keep going. We arrive at 1:25pm and the albergue opens at 1:30.

We join the queue and I have a small blood sugar related almost-collapse. We check in to this truly splendid albergue and do the shower thing. We stagger into the only bar we can find and each eat a large pizza. I feel much better. Back to the albergue for a sleep. I drift off listening to ‘The Big Sleep’, another BBC Radio 4 play. I wake up at random moments and realise I have no idea what’s going on. You cannot fall asleep during a Raymond Chandler story…

It’s so incredibly hot that we return to the bar, which for reasons we can’t determine, is quite cool and pleasant. We watch the Simpsons dubbed in Spanish and zone out.

This albergue is a donativo, run by volunteers on an entirely free basis. It really is a lovely old building and seems quite popular with the seasoned Camino veterans.

As with most donativos there is a communal meal in the evening.  A veggie option is provided and all us veggies sit together to make life easier for the hospitaleros. The table is an eclectic group, us Scots, an Austrian, three Germans, a Canadian, a Spaniard, an Italian and a young lady from England – who was doing the Camino following a 2 year stint in South Sudan with Save The Children Fund and a bicycle trip from London to Hong Kong. Like you do…

The delight of communal dinners is that you are forced to meet your fellow travellers.  The albergue sensibly has no WiFi and the hospitaleros go to some efforts to make the peregrinos talk to one another.

Following dinner we all gather in the back garden in a big circle and join hands.  The lead hospitalero asks us to go around the circle, give our names, and, if we want, state why we’re on the Camino.

I say that I want to prove I’m not dead yet and I want to do something with my daughter, and I add, with a lump in my throat, that I want to remember my infirm son back home.  Definitely another CALS* moment…

Others give diverse reasons, others stay quiet.  The circle completes and our leader instructs us to hug each other in a meaningful manner. Yes, I know it sounds corny, but written down on a screen, so does every other significant moment in your life… I loved it.

They specialise in spectacular sunsets around here, and, in fact, the main photo atop this blog was taken at this very albergue last year on Jen’s first Camino trip.

So, around 10pm we go to the highest point in the village to watch the sun set. We sit next to some splendid Australian ladies who are celebrating their retirement with a Camino walk.

That same sun, that only a few hours ago was trying to kill us, finally hits the horizon.

The best albergue experience so far…

*Camino Adjusted Lachrymosity Syndrome

Day 15 : Stats