Why do we bother to plan? We set an alarm for 6:15 so we could pack and be ready to leave as soon as we finished eating at 7. Pam kept insisting on hitting the snooze until we only had enough time to dress and make it downstairs. I tried to get her up but couldn’t take the “I worked for 30 years…” speech again, so I bit my tongue and slept in as any good husband would. Long story short, we were on the trail by 8.
We knew this was going to be a long day so we planned to break it up into bite size portions. We would stop in every town along the way and cool off a bit. The first town was Santo Domingo, a little over 5 miles down the trail. When we got in town, not a thing was open directly on the Camino and we didn’t want to go looking off trail for a cafe. We were in town just a few minutes after 10 and feeling good, so we just kept going.
On the outskirts of town, we ran across another Irish man, Eamon. We talked with him for a bit and we discussed people we had both met on the Camino and who we could expect to see. He had just spent 100 Euros on a new pair of shoes because his converse tennis shoes had no soles left. We shared foot woes for a bit.
I promised to share some rants yesterday, so I’ll just get into my first one–bikes on the Camino. 1600 years ago when the Camino began, how many pilgrims rode bikes? I don’t know why they are even allowed today. I’m not saying the people riding are not athletes, but they do destroy the peacefulness of the experience (but so does walking next to busy highways, but I digress). At least let us know you are behind us before you whizz by at 30 mph. When you are hiking long distances in the heat, you tend to zone out. Nearly getting hit by bikes traveling too fast definitely knocks you out of the zone.
The next town on the trail was about another 5 miles ahead–Granon. If all goes well for George today, this is where he’ll end up giving him an almost 16 mile day. The guidebooks say this is an ideal town to spend an extra day–why is a mystery to me. They had a nice church as all the towns do and a really nice cafe/grocery across from the church that played really great music, but that was all. The Albergue is supposed to serve a communal meal which can be fun, but two days? We had potato chips, bananas, and a Diet Coke before moving on.
The next town, Redecilla del Camino was in another 2.5 miles. Before we got there, we crossed into another semi-autonomous region–Castillo y Leon. This is the largest region in all of Spain and where we will spend the majority of time on our Camino. They want everyone to know where they are.
We were not impressed with the towns in this new region today. The trail parallels the N120 all the way up to Belorado. Time for rant #2. I understand that this is a historical trail and that the pilgrim experience is supposed to be deprivation and painful, but would it kill the experience if the trail were NOT running beside a busy highway all day. Would it be further lessened if there were maybe 1 tree within 1/2 mile of the trail on a hot sunny day. I know this isn’t a wilderness trail like the AT, but Spain does have trees. We walked parallel to a forest all day about a mile to our left but shoot me if there was any object to provide shade next to the highway other than oversized signs. End of rant; returning to our narrative.
2 of the next 3 towns didn’t even have a shop or cafe to get out of the sun and cool off in–I’m not wanting AC (that will be tomorrow’s rant). Bottom line, today was a miserably hot day with the trail running next to a highway all day and bikes strafing us on a gravel road. The terrain, itself, was not bad, but it was very similar to being dropped in the middle of Kansas and told to walk out. Kansas have never been anything more than a ball-buster state we have to survive to get to Colorado–I want Colorado. (Is this considered a rant, too?)
The end of the day was rewarded with a beautiful town–Belorado (it sounds like Colorado, so the day was worth it). We made it in around 5 which means even with lots of breaks and carrying 35# packs, we still averaged over 2 miles an hour. We found an Albergue and got settled in. Susan from Canada was here as well.
We had a bar and restaurant roughly 10′ from our beds, so beer, wine, and pilgrim menus without fear of getting lost on the way home. After supper, we walked around and looked at the town. A beautiful town square and would you believe? A very ornate church in this town of 2000. Storks were taking over the belfry.
Next to the church were houses built into caves in the cliff–very amazing. We talked to one of the owners, but couldn’t get an invitation in.
We also made contact with Shaun and found out everyone we were hiking with is in town. We went to their Albergue and visited a bit. We’re all going to be in Burgos in two days so we’ll catch up then.
You both make the walking look well worth it… take care of those feet 😊