Halfway to Santiago Day 19 (May 2)

Albergues are interesting places. They are typically made up of several rooms with multiple bunk beds very close together in each. These are communal rooms, men and women together. Little or no privacy. Any sound that is made takes flight over the entire room. So now it is four o'clock in the morning and I need to head to the bathroom. Not too much noise making my way out of the room but when I returned, I could not for the life of me find the opening in my sleeping bag. No matter which way I tried to slide into it, I ran into a dead end. It was a literal fight with much shifting and crinkling sounds, creating concern about waking the entire room with my noise before I finally found a way into this cocoon and thankfully more sleep.

On our way out of Carrion, we were delighted to discover a bakery open so picked up the first whole grain bread we have had since our arrival in Spain. Although bread accompanies virtually everything food item you order in Spain, it is always white bread. It was very nice to find some whole grain for a change.

Because it was an 18 kilometre walk before there was any villages, we had a quick breakfast of tortilla potata and coffee. We thought we would be the last of the pilgrims out of town but discovered more pilgrims walking with us on the trail than on any day previous. Because of this, I choose to listen to music for the first part of the trail.

We did run into the two ladies from Ashland Oregon whom we had met way back in Circuena. They were making very good time walking at a faster pace than us, in large part because of my frequent stops for picture taking, including one of them.

Araska Providing Direction

Later on we were joined on the trail by a young man and woman from Czeckoslovakia - Tomash and Araska. They had met just a month previously through their common desire to walk the Camino. What delightful young people. I was particularly impressed with them as we observed them helping an older fellow peregrino who was having many challenges. This gentleman from Austria, we learned, was an English instructor who had a stroke about a year ago. He was struggling with memory and lost his small pack that contained his passport, credit cards and money, not once but twice. We sincerely hope he finds his way to Santiago.

After our 18 kilometres, we were ready for stop in Caldadilla de la Cueza. We picked up some cheese and salami at a tienda to add to our whole grain bread and then found a restaurant/bar to get a beer to accompany them. It was there that we were delighted to see Christiana, one of the German ladies. It seems that she was now walking on her own as the others had less time and opted to skip the meseta and take a bus directly to Leon.

Although many find the meseta to be tedious, we are finding it to be cathartic. With miles of multi-shaded green fields and enough specimen trees to provide an occasional disruption, the repeated act of putting of one foot in front of the other allows for mind to wander and take in the simplicity of this part of the journey.

Meseta

Something I keep forgetting to mention about the meseta is the constant provision of song by the many larks that are along the trail. We have also had cuckoo birds continue to taunt us as we walk each day.

Descending into Ledigos, there were arrows created with rocks and the word Forgive spelled out. When we reached Ledigos, there were two path options to Terradillos de Templarios and once again we chose the one less traveled which went through the countryside, depositing right in front of our albergue of choice for the night. On the way there we saw six banks of solar panels to which I responded, "Holy cow!" and what should appear but, you guessed it - cows!

Terradillos marks the halfway point between St. Jean and Santiago - a major victory for us. After this long day, we made the decision that we would depart from the stages in Brierley guide and only go as far as Sahagun tomorrow. We are in need of a day to get some clothes washed, pick up some items that we are running low on, and get caught up on our communications.

We did not even leave our albergue to explore the village and opted instead to have dinner there where we were joined by couple from Vancouver Island, Char and Barry. Had a very nice visit and headed off to bed.

Lesson for the Day: Boredom has it's rewards.

 

 

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