Our walk out of Orbigo, again along the highway, was pretty uneventful. About the only interesting thing was a line of plastic bottles covering plants that had been planted along the canal. The skies were a welcome blue and vapor trails from planes flying overhead were present.
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| Farmer Checking Irrigation |
This portion remained farmland, this time there was the addition of hop fields. I saw a farmer working on his irrigation out of the antique concrete canals and took this opportunity to try to ask him how the water gets out to the field. Once again my poor Spanish skills had me at a significant disadvantage but I believe he said through words and gestures that there were some kind of pipes that brought the water out through the field. I couldn't see any pipes and perhaps there really weren't any but at least I attempted to learn something about their farming practices.
One wheat field just before the town of Santibanez de Valdeiglesia was competing with a beautiful intruder - poppies. Their red heads peering above the wheat, like red stop lights, created a magical scene.
Just outside of that same town, we came upon a pen of cows. I know, I seem to be obsessed with cows but they really are gentle creatures and being a farm girl, I appreciate that about them. Anyway, these particular ones let me scratch their necks, a rewarding time for them and me. Just past the adults were small individual covered pens, each with a baby calf in them. I didn't realize until later that these were likely going to be someone's veal dinner. Made me sad.
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| Peregrino Carving |
From there we entered into a welcome 8 kilometre stretch of dirt path through scrub pines. It was nice to once again be on a path that had some ups and downs instead of being completely flat. About halfway down the path, there was a cross shrine with several unique carvings of pilgrims. I really wondered who created them - one looked like something my nephew, Justin, might have created at one time.
We have met many unique hospitaleros along the camino but today we met someone who has to be the most unique of all. He lived on a bed in the middle of nowhere and had a stand set up with all kinds of refreshments. Payment was by donation only. His comment was that he had a wonderful life - he was FREE!
Just before the descent into Astorga, was a large cross and a man playing a guitar welcoming peregrinos to the city below. There was also a map delineating all the different mountain peaks and cities that were ahead of us, including the mountain that held the Iron Cross where we will deposit the stones we have carried with us since our journey began.
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| Cross Above Astorga |
We had once again sent some of the contents of our backpacks forward, this time to the first albergue as you entered town. There was another albergue at the other end of town that we thought we would try to stay at but after walking some distance to find it, we decided to go back to the original one. We were really glad to be back in the albergues again as they really seem more the culture of the camino than staying in an individual room.
We went in search of another small bag so Fred could also send some of his contents forward and found one at the only store that was open due to it being a Sunday.
Everyone gathered again for dinner, another great time sharing stories of our day and our lives. Got back to our albergue just in time for lights out at 10:00. The morning will come quickly.
Lesson for the Day: If we aren't careful, our possessions can hold us captive.
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