What would you do if you had a private room with your own bathroom after sleeping in bunk beds every night for the last 3 weeks? That’s right, we slept in. There may not have been snoring last night, but there were plenty of barking dogs.
Pam, Mike, and Rachael were eating when we came down for breakfast. We shared a table with them and talked about our plans for Leon while we ate. They are planning to take a bus from Reliegos tomorrow to skip all the road walking into and out of town. The guide book even offers up this suggestion. Pam and I tend to be hiking purists so motorized transportation along the trail isn’t really an option for us.
Let me just mention a few things about hiking the Camino–a rant-mini if you will. Pam and I did not quit our jobs and sell everything we own to fly around the world and hike “most of a trail”. This is what we want to do, so we are not going to do it half-assed. There are definitely people doing the trail in different manners than we are. Some people only want to walk a set amount every day and then take taxis or buses so they can keep up with the same group they started with. Other’s ship their packs ahead and walk to them every day to avoid the extra strain of carrying everything. Sometimes you get hurt and can’t walk so you take a taxi to keep up with your group rather than take a few days off and have to met all new people. There are many variations available to suit your situation. There are time considerations to consider as well as physical limitations (or shear stupidity for some).
How we do it is our business. How someone else does it is their business. If they want to do it half-assed, that’s their choice. What’s it matter what I think about it? I am Easily ForGotten so who cares?
The trail continued up the Roman Road again today. This is not quite the experience I thought it might have been walking on such an old road. With all the gravel on it, you’d never know this is a significant road. The first 2 miles were black-topped which made it even harder on our feet. It was a very hot day with no winds and few trees to break up the monotony.
Once the road switched back to gravel, we could spot a tree in the distance, so we had a goal. When we finally made the tree, we just dropped down to try to cool off a bit. A couple passed us by and checked to make sure we were ok and not in heat exhaustion. We assured them we were fine.
A couple miles further down the road, a clump of trees started to form. We were only about 4 miles in for the day and I was sweating like mad. One of the side affects of my recent system purge was that I constantly feel like I’ve got to pee even though very little comes out. I’m starting to wonder if I have a bladder infection or if this might be some sort of side affect from dehydration. At any rate, I’m stopping to try to pee about every 10 minutes. I’m usually pretty good about looking around, but once we made the trees, I kind of let my guard down. As I finished, I looked up to see the couple that offered us help sitting in a shelter about 50 yards back from the show. I grabbed my poles from Pam and said we needed to make tracks.
About 15 minutes later, the couple caught up with us again. He must have seen that I was no threat to him and they were kind enough to pretend that I hadn’t given them a full frontal. We ended up talking and walking with Andre and Katalin for the next 5-6 miles. They both happen to live in Switzerland, but she is Hungarian. They like to walk about a bit and are just trying to live a reduced stress life.
Once we talked for a little bit, Andre said that they knew who we were. We’re the Americans that have sold everything to go hike around the world. They thought it was great. We talked politics–it’s hard not to when Pam is always bringing up the subject. We talked morality, economics, history, and guns (since Switzerland is usually the example that the NRA uses a lot). A big difference is that Switzerland requires everyone to have 2 years full time military experience before they are given their guns and the guns are registered so if your gun is used in a crime, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do.
The conversation flowed and the time passed quickly hiking through this open space. We came upon Pam, Mike, and Rachael enjoying a break next to a lake in the road. Some might call it a mud puddle, but this family makes a lot of lemonade. I never thought we’d catch up with them, but Rachael’s feet are not quite 100% yet and she was running a slight fever at breakfast. I’m sure she’s miserable today.
They caught back up with us when we stopped for lunch a mile or two later. We chose a wooded lot protected by an electric fence which Andre gallantly tested to make sure it was off. There were cow pies pretty evenly distributed through the trees which made for very soft sitting. Mike, Pam, and Rachael opted for just the shoulder of the road in the shade rather than the padded tree spots.
When we got going again, we discovered we were further along than I had thought with it being less than 2 miles to Reliegos. I thought we could surely find a cafe and a cold Aquarius in town. We headed right to an Albergue with cold drinks. As soon as we sat down, Peter and Linda showed up and we picked up where we had left off the day before with Annapurna.
Andre and Katalin might or might not have reservations in Mansilla tonight, so they decided to move on a little before we were ready to. Pam and I have not been making reservations anywhere in advance because we like to keep our options open and not be forced into a schedule. We took off a few minutes after they did, but we could never catch up with them. It was full heat, no trees, no breeze, and I was wilting in the 90 degree temps. It was less than 5 miles to Mansilla, but it took us almost 3 hours to get there.
When we did, I headed straight for the municipal in the old section of town. I’ll admit, it was dumpy, unorganized, crowded, and loud, but there were open beds and I was hot and tired (and apparently short tempered). Pam didn’t like it at all and insisted on leaving. There are only 3 or 4 Albergues in town so our choices are limited. We walked around a bit and couldn’t find anything else. I got pissy and sat down and told her to go find something then come and get me when she was satisfied. We were not happy with each other at this point.
Damned if she wasn’t right. She found a much nicer Albergue we had passed up and there were plenty of open beds. It was one big room, but there were ceiling fans and lots of windows. We dropped our bags with the intention of a 10 minute nap before showering up before supper in two hours. We almost slept past supper.
When we did come down, Katalin was sitting at a table and Andre was getting Sangrias. They offered to let us join them and they sweetened the offer with a Sangria–we were in. They were staying in a different location but not an Albergue. We had another pleasant conversation with them. Eventually, they had to go and we had to eat.
We sat down at a table next to Barry and Susan and they asked our blog address and started reading it a bit. We were eavesdropping a bit to try and hear their reaction to it–I think Barry was laughing at the little bit of intro he read.
After supper, it was showers and bed. The young couple next to us were both in the bottom bunk together. At first, I thought it was two guys but it did turn out to be a man and woman. He closed the window and got on the top bunk. I wasn’t too thrilled with him. About 10 minutes later, she got up and opened the window before getting back in bed. I liked her a lot. Except for the French guy snoring a few beds away, we had a pretty decent night’s sleep.