Steve : Up at 6 after a literally infernal night (see yesterday’s post). Haven’t felt this tired since we tried to give away Jen to Homerton Children’s Hospital at 2:30am one morning when she was 18 months old. “Here, take this child, we haven’t slept for months, thank you, bye…”.

Anyway… the hospitalero tells us over breakfast that it’s around 10 deg C hotter this year than last. Oh dear.

I plaster my feet with some fake Spanish Vaseline (someone recommended it and I’ll now try anything) and stagger out the door.

Across some scrub and up a hill – finally the path was diverging from the main road. Took lots of photos of half abandoned Spanish villages…

The evil sun was up and doing it’s thing but I thought it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. Maybe this peely-wally Scotsman was finally getting used to the orange orb thing in the sky?

After a couple of hours rambling through some nice countryside I came upon what can only be described as an oasis.

A couple of locals had set up a stall, with covered sitting areas and interesting bits and pieces.

The stall was piled high with fruit, fruit juices, coffee, a huge variety of teas and they even had a pizza oven. A large sign said in several languages “Free, help yourself”. And it really was. I filled up on fruit, coffee and a took a couple of boiled eggs. I tried to wash my cup and our benefactor insisted that I let him do it. There was a small box marked ‘donativo’ but there really truly was no sense of any expectation. All our host wanted was to hug everyone as they left and wish them Buen Camino. I put a few euro in the box and left, thinking that some folk really do make the world a better place.

Back to the trail along the roadside, unfortunately, as I approached Astorga.  The roadside trail may be boring but the graffiti isn’t.  Camino graffiti is definitely of a higher standard…

Something big was happening in Astorga – the main square had a religious statue in it and it looked like a procession might be happening.

But peregrinos can’t hang about. We had decided to aim for a vegetarian albergue in Murias, so after two more breakfasts, one in each end of the town, I headed out into the midday heat to get the last 5k done before melting time.

I arrived at the very splendid Albergue Casa las Aguedas around 1pm and checked us all in.

Then rinse, lather, repeat of self and clothes and the lounging around can begin….

J and H didn’t show up until late afternoon after an epic 35km hike in the heat of the day. Thankfully today’s heat of the day wasn’t as bad as yesterday but nonetheless – much respect!

This albergue is very quiet and plays Windham Hill type music at subdued volume throughout. Very tranquil.

Dinner was served at 7pm and set a new high standard. Gazpacho soup, couscous with grilled vegetables and poached apples and pears for dessert. Incredible value for 10 euros.

We went to bed not long after 8pm. H was asleep immediately and didn’t stir until 6am the next day. I was too hot, again, and it took me a good while to get to sleep. But no snorers….

Best albergue yet, I think.

Jen and Hamish walking to Vilar de Mazarife. Steve on the bus to Hospital de Orbigo.

Steve : I took advantage of my new plan and didn’t get up until 8, a full 2 hours after the walkers had left. I had another shower (the luxury!!) and spent 20 mins spent trying to sort out my feet and socks and shoes.

Then off to wander around Leon until my 1pm bus.

Leon is a rather pretty city, if you ignore the outskirts. The cathedral is magnificent and I paid my 6 euros and spent an hour or so soaking in the atmosphere.

The audio guide said that in the 13th century, when the cathedral was built, the town was a mere 5000 people. That’s smaller than my home town in Scotland. I’m never entirely sure if this is a genuine sacrificial act of  community worship or some feudal game of “who has the best cathedral” played by the ruling classes, whilst the peasants would really rather just have some more food. I suspect the latter but I suppose we’ll never know. In any case the cathedral is magnificent.

I had breakfast in an upmarket cafe overlooking the cathedral. And, in spite of everything, I genuinely missed the tortilla and coffee of the real peregrino and envied J and H.

I had a dodgy lunch in a dodgy cafe near the bus station (why are cafes near stations always a bit suspect?) and guiltily got on the 13:00 bus. Three euros and 15 cents gets me out of a day and a half of walking.

I arrive in Hospital de Orbigo after 40 minutes and check in to the very splendid San Miguel albergue. It comes complete with paints, brushes and an easel should you feel the need to get creative. The entire place is lined with peregrino artworks. Lovely.

I get in to a small room with four beds and, for the first time, I’m on a top bunk. Not sure how that will play out…

This is a beautiful town and this is a particularly fine albergue. The hospitalero is from Venezuela and has lined the entire building with art works created by peregrinos. He provides a canvas, an easel and some paint and away you go….

I read and slept most of the afternoon and evening as the mercury rose. Dinner was a generic veg paella in an air conditioned restaurant. I spent the rest of the evening talking to some of the younger walkers. The other midddle aged couple in my room were a bit miserable and seemed to take my arrival as a personal insult but never mind.

To bed at 9:30. Trouble was it was so hot. The pharmacia sign said 35 deg C at 8:30. I lay there listening to podcast after podcast. I recall looking at my watch at 2:30am. I think all four of us were awake in the room. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot. At one point I thought about getting up and going out to the garden just to avoid hallucinating. The next thing I knew it was 4 am and the miserable couple’s alarm had gone off. They really were bad room mates. Good practice is to put your alarm (usually your phone) under your pillow and thus not annoy anyone else. But no, the alarm goes off, some yawning and stretching happen, and then the alarm is silenced. Thanks for that…

Day 18 : Stats

Steve : Up early again.

Rumour is that today is to be the hottest yet. Keen to get the 24k to Leon done before we melt.

Spain builds excellent roads. We cross an unfinished highway…

…and watch the construction vehicles come out from Leon. There are dozens of them. Every now and then a truck comes past spreading water to damp down the dust.

We’d run out of cash yesterday so the first requirement of the day was a cash machine. This we found in the village of Mansillas de las Mulas. Which is a bit of an ugly town. And, for the first time on the trip, we could find no open cafes. So now we had money but nowhere to spend it. We’d done 6k without breakfast and we were kept going by visions of strong coffee and tortillas. Eventually we found a tired old place on the main square and had strange cake for breakfast.

Thankfully the next small town had some excellent cafes so we were up and running.

Right, there’s no way to sugar coat this. Today’s walk is just plain boring. The entire day is spend walking alongside the N-120, a busy road with trucks and all sorts of things that aren’t fun if you’re a walker.

We decide on the topic of the day’s conversation. Let’s get an old truck and convert it for driving around the world. This proved a fruitful topic and the kilometres fairly flew by.

But as we got within a few km of Leon my feet were really suffering. Everything else was working fine, but my feet were falling apart. I was getting concerned.

I was greatly looking forward to our prebooked hotel in Leon. As with all major Spanish cities on the Camino the approach to Leon was long and hot and definitely a trudge.

A nice moment was found as we approached the old city walls we came upon a table staffed by local volunteers handing out maps and boiled sweets. We made it into central Leon and our hotel around 1pm.

It was GLORIOUS to have our own rooms. I unpacked everything and deliberately made a mess as I showered and cleaned up.

We went for a small stroll around the cathedral but my feet were in such a state that every step hurt. So we retired to our rooms where the youngsters slept and the old man did techy things and sat with his feet up.

At 6 Jen did a blister removal operation on my feet and we limped out in Leon to find a pizza place that Jen remembers from her last visit, last year. We found it and had three enormous pizzas and several pints of Perrier.

We also made a plan. I’m getting properly concerned about my left foot and I think I need to rest up. So J and H will set off tomorrow to Villarreal de Mazarife on the optional (according to Brierley) ‘scenic route’. Which has the huge advantage of not running along the roadside. I would get on a bus to Hospital de Orbigo, about 30km along the trail. The plan is that on Sunday I’ll start walking again and do a short 15km day to Astoria where I’ll meet up with J and H.

Plan made, we went shopping for sunglasses and soap for Jen.

Albergues have a fairly strict 10pm shut-up policy. Unfortunately the Real World doesn’t and, as you have to have all the windows open in order not to melt, it took some time to get to sleep.

Day 17 : Stats

Steve : Bercianos has a strict no-getting-up-before-6:00am policy, which, on the whole, was adhered to. The promised snorefest (see yesterdays post) didn’t really happen. But sleep was slow to arrive because of the sweltering heat.

We looked at the ‘Vegetarian Way’ poster and decided to stop a few km before normal today in the tiny town of Reliegos, 6km before Mansillas, the usual stop. This will give us 24km to do to Leon tomorrow but that’s ok. We’ve booked hotel rooms in Leon so we can sleep in glorious solitude and use real TOWELS! Oh, the luxury.

The route today was hot and dry, and ran alongside the road.

After yesterday’s blisterfest I wore my sandals with thick socks, which might seem counterintuitive but seems to work for me – trading off coolness (in the thermodynamic sense, coolness in the fashion session having been abandoned long ago) and support. Frankly this part of the trail is a little boring.

H, J and I spent the walk discussing how to declutter ones wardrobe (capsule wardrobe, apparently), scuba diving and flying lessons (to the great surprise of J and me, H doesn’t actually know how to fly a plane. However he does seem to be able to do pretty much everything else…).

Breakfast was in El Burgo Ranero.

By 10:30 the heat was getting problematic so we were very pleased to stumble upon Reliegos as we rounded a bend over a hill and we found the Ada Albergue in no time. We were the first in.

Wash, rinse, leather, repeat, etc and done.

This is a very nice albergue. Highly recommended. Our hospitalero was from Wales and volunteers here for a few weeks every year. The above photo shows him serenading the locals.

Now, cash is in short supply and we were down to our last 12 euros. No cash machine until Mansillas, 6 k into tomorrow, and Spanish shops don’t do credit cards. We tried to pay with a MasterCard in the breakfast cafe and you’d think the lady had never seen one before. She had a look of “why are you showing me a piece of pink plastic?”

Just after getting settled in H got the dreaded email from Edinburgh University informing him that his final degree grade had been posted. J and I stole his iPad and login whilst he looked on in pain. No worries. Let me introduce Mr Hamish Hutchings, BSc Hons, Upper Second. Oh yes…  we were sadly too broke to celebrate.

Following our bread and cheese lunch J got the same email. We stole her phone and we’re delighted to inform her that we were now in the presence of Ms Jennifer Logan MA Hons, Upper Second.

By now we had a mere 2 euros and 12 cents to our name so celebrations were restricted to a carton of fruit juice and a KitKat. Living it large.

Dinner was splendid. Pedro, the albergue owner, is an excellent cook and we had the best meal of the trip so far. Pedro provided a free bottle of wine and toasted the future of the new graduates. Very pleasant evening.

There were only 8 of us in that evening. No snorers!

Early to bed. Tomorrow is the trudge to Leon alongside a busy road.

Day 16 : Stats

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

Steve : Way back in Zubiri we saw a poster called ‘The Vegetarian Way’. On it was Alburgue San Bruno, in Moratinos. This would be an extra 3km beyond the Brierley recommended stop at Terradillos de los Templarios, but we were craving something other than cheese rolls for our sustenance. Thus, a 30km walk awaits.

Jen wakes up extremely grumpy. Years of experience tells me that this is not a Good Thing but there’s nothing anyone, particularly me, can do about it. We are up at 5am and make a decent breakfast of scrambled eggs and fruit bought from the lovely air conditioned supermarket the night before.

Off we go…

Off we go, approaching the 17km stretch of nothing before the tiny village of Calzadilla de la Cueza. We’d been warned to make sure we had enough water and energy bars.

I rather liked the nothing. I put on my headphones and worked my way through Paul Simon and the Afro-Celts. I was flying along. We made good progress before the sun came up.

A dark an ominous sky was to our right, to the north. We hoped it would stay there…

It’s hard to convey the scale of this place. It’s big and flat and nothing.

About half way through the 17km was a rest stop.  Some wit had added this graffiti to the sign.

Her Grumpiness was bringing up the rear. We made it to a cafe in Calzadilla. There’s a dip in the plain. You’re walking, walking, walking and then out of nowhere appears the town.

A spinach and potato tortilla at 9am was most welcome.

Then the heat starts and the trudge begins. Through Ledigos…

…where J hops in a taxi to accompany a Canadian girl who has ground to a halt with very bad blisters. The idea was to take the taxi to the albergue at Terradillos, and J would wait for us there. Our Canadian friend decided to go to Sahagun, another 10k or so, so Jen exited at Terradillos and waited for H and me.

More Coke and apple pie and we were on our way on the final 3k to a veggie albergue in Moratinos.

We stagger in to San Bruno around 1pm, hot and bothered. The Italian couple who run the place are lovely and within an hour we’d done the washing of us and our clothes and we spent the rest of the day lounging around with our feet in a cold-water pool.

I had some big blisters so Jen did surgery and got to inflict pain on her father which improved her mood considerably.

The only other residents were a French Canadian couple who had walked from Montpellier and were setting a storming pace of 30-40k per day. Dinner was served at 7pm. Tagliatelle pesto, done properly, and a big salad. Good conversation, swapping traveller’s tales and comparing notes.

Early to bed, us three were the only inhabitants of our 18 bed room. A good day. Even Jen cheered up…

Day 14 : Stats