An update on the last week

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Saturday 18th Sept

No nap this afternoon and because we arrived in town so early it feels like we have a whole day free. It's amazing! I spent the bulk of the afternoon checking out the Burgos cathedral. Wow! Talk about stunning. It was overwhelming with it's beauty and detail and age. I took heaps of photographs but eventually had to stop as there were just too many beautiful things to capture. 

Later we did our standard supermarket shop and then hunted about for dinner. 

I had a hard night tonight, emotionally.    But I can't believe the amount of amazing support I got  from everyone. All these wonderful new friends I have made on the camino, they really are so lovely.

Tomorrow I think the group will split. It's time for us all to go our separate ways. 

Sunday 19th sept
Today it's just me, Mirkosch and Armando leaving together. Said goodbye to Simone today, which was sad. 

A long day in the sun today. We walked through the mesetas - a desert like region - for quite a while. These rather barren areas are pretty challenging to get through in the heat.

At one small village along the way a lovely old Spanish guy stopped and chatted with us in Spanish. Although my spanish is still pretty bad, we luckily got the gist of what he said. He suggested stopping at a spring 5kms on from the village. I'm so glad we did, it was lovely. And a German lady told me it was a healing spring. It certainly healed my sore and tired feet when I soaked them in it´s cool waters. We had a really decent break there while I wrote some notes and mirkosch chatted with the German lady about the set up there. 

The place is called the San Bol Refugio. It´s set alone in a few trees and beside the spring. It was gorgeous. We were very tempted to stay there. Sleeps 12, hot showers and dinner cooked for you. I think if we stayed we would have been the only ones there - heaven. Apparently part of it is an old Templar chapel. It had a really great vibe.

Anyway, we decided to go on to our planned destination - Hontanas. The Refugio recommended by the German lady (and owned by the same owner as hers) was full, so we ended up staying in the municipal albergue. It was great, good beds, amazing showers...all we needed. 

After showering, washing clothes, etc. I went outside, sat in the sun and started chatting with some of the other pilgrams. I met Claude from Canada, Lydia also from Canada and Deano from Italy. A few old faces were also in town - Perry, Johan and Connie.

Cooked again. This time Perry took charge and we had Dutch pasta - fried onions, salami, in tomato sauce with tuna added at the end. And of course,alot of cheese. It was divine!!

After dinner we sat out on the street and chatted until late. I headed to bed, but had to go outside again for a while to watch Armando play the percussion instrument with the rasta Spanish dude. Very amusing. 

I think Hontanas has been my favorite destination so far. Such a peaceful, quiet spot. The people are warm and friendly. All the pilgrams staying in town seem to be the very genuine ones, those working at a slightly deeper level. 

There is definitely something about the energy of this whole area that is peaceful, relaxing and warm.

Tuesday 21st September
Breakfast at the albergue and then I walked to Fromista with Perry. I was favouring my blistered foot at first, but got used to walking on it normally pretty quickly.  

After Fromista I walked alone the rest if the way. It was a great day for walking and thinking.  I only stopped a couple of times - both times at churches. And both Churches were really old and beautiful. The second one had some templar history - interesting.  It was a great old church, I was looking around and then all of a sudden a light show started. It was quite cool, but also kinda strange to see such a modern event in an old church. 

Just before Carrion do Los Condes, my destination for the day, I came across Perry.  We walked into town together and both decided to stay at the nunnery - Santa Clara. It is beautiful and quiet - I love it. 

After a nap I walked into town. Came across Johan and we went for a walk to the river, had a drink and then went to the supermarket. Wow - the supermarket was clearly the place to be! I met up with everyone here. Also Armando, so we decided to cook together again. 

We shared dinner tonight with the lovely Spanish guy we have seen on our trip alot. His name is Jose Luis - I really like him. Felix also joined us for a bit. And we also saw Will again, met a really lovely American chick and the Italians were also there. We counted over ten different nationalities in the kitchen at one point.

Pasta again, meat, tomato sauce, olives, onion, could have done with some chorizo too. A spiral pasta and mixed the sauce in with it. 

I then went back to my accom, met Kim and Annie, the Danes, chatted for a bit and then to bed.

Wed 22nd Sept
Hit the road about 7.30 this morning - on my own today. It was a little dark and scary but ok. I hit a point where I just wasn't sure of the way to go, so I decided to wait for another pilgram, and I'm really glad I did as I was about to head a bit off track. I followed the others out of town and banged into Lydia. We walked together for quite a while. We just walked and talked - it was nice. I then caught up with Iris, the german girl, and we walked and talked for a while. When I finally hit Calzadilla de la Cueza, and me, Lydia and Will had lunch there. We met some very entertaining Spanish cyclists - who were keen to chat and get photos taken with us. I then walked the rest of the way with Will.  We stay at the albergue in the village of Terradillos de Los Templarios. The village was pretty deserted but the albergue was great. 

It was a fairly uneventful day - apart from the red cross checking up in us and a group of army guys on the walk. It was definitely a very painless day considering everyone was expecting it to be very difficult. I had a lovely day of walking and talking to a few different people. 

We are halfway today - 400kms down and 400 to go.

We spent the afternoon chatting again. It is so good the conversations you have with people from so many different places. Just one conversation this afternoon was about different drinks. In germany they drink beer and cola. In Spain they drink wine and soda,and wine and beer mixed.  A few new things to try.

Thursday 23rd Sept
Had a great sleep last night. So wonderful to have only four people in a room. Got up pretty late, 6.45, and had breakfast downstairs. 

Walked today with Armando, Jose Luis and Will. It was Jose luiz's last day today and we left him in sahagun to get a train home. Very sad. 

Me and Armando did a bit of shopping in Sahagun as it was going to be the last big town for a while. We were tempted to stay there, as it was quite a nice place. The walk was pretty uneventful. We saw Lydia and Greta a few times along the way. 

We have decided to stay the night in bercianos del camino. It's a tiny town of only 250 people. The albergue is really quaint - old and rustic. 

I had a really big sleep this afternoon. For some reason I was totally exhausted. Maybe the 400kms catching up with me?

At 7pm a few of us went to the pilgram mass in the little town chapel. It was a lovely little service. And at 8pm we had a shared dinner - we all had to say our name and what country we are from.

The Refugio is donation only, for accommodation, dinner and breakfast. And the pilgrams help to make the dinner and clean up. 

At dinner I sat with Connie, mike from USA and a lady from sth Africa. The lady from Sth Africa had volunteered in a Refugio so it was interesting to hear about that. 

Bed at 10 and tomorrow is another day.

Friday 24th Sept
Left the albergue at 7.30 this morning. Man, it was freezing. I had on all my Marino tops and my raincoat and was still cold. 

Me and Armando were both a little slow today, he with his ankle and me with my blisters. It was really a rather  boring and uneventful walk. Cold and windy. 

We reached our destination at around 2pm. On arrival at the municipal albergue, Laura the hospitalario, asked if we were the Brazilian guy and the kiwi girl. We were pretty blown away - how did she know this???  Anyway apparently Tobias and Annie were staying there and had talked to her about us. Laura also asked if I was military, no, and how I had got my credential - she said it was issued by the military and could open more doors than most. Who knows what this means??

We got settled in and went for a walk around town. Not much to see. At the supermarket we bumped into Tobias and Annie. 

We did a shared dinner with Guy and a bunch of Catalans. It was great fun! I went to the supermarket with Juon to buy wine - he was hassling me about about not knowing spanish. Ah...I can only keep trying.

Another food idea - pasta salad. Pasta, boiled eggs, tuna and olives.

It was a very entertaining dinner. We then went for coffee and an after dinner drink with them in a bar nearby. 

Me and Armando stayed in the kitchen until latish talking. We are both learning and growing so much on this trip. Best nights sleep yet. 

Saturday 25th Sept
Slept in and left the albergue about 8am. It was a fairly uneventful trip to Leon. Stopped at a cute little cafe on the way for breakfast and chatted with the staff for a while.

We stayed at the Municipal Albergue in Leon - a little out of town, but not too far. Once we were settled in we went straight into town. Had an amazing huge lunch!! Got more pages for our credential and then checked out the cathedral.

The Cathedral was beautiful - in a very different way from Borgos. Lots of gorgeous stained glass windows. We stayed in town and watched the Celtic music festival and preperations for the ´crowning of the king´show. We met Llandro and went for a drink with him. Sarah from Italy turned up and we had dinner around nine. About 11pm, me and Sarah went back to the Albegue... it was quite amusing, as it was difficult to find and we couldn´t communicate with each other very well. Anyway, made it home.

Sunday, 26th Sept
Left Leon quite late...we are getting later and later every day. Had breakfast at a funny local cafe and then stopped at an old monastary that is now a hotel - gorgeous.

What a day... we ended up walking 40kms. We went the alternative way today, not realising that it was going to take us a much longer way. It was definitely more attractive and we took a few stops along the way for drinks and lunch. We got in to Hospital De Orbiga about 7.30pm... our latest arrival time yet.

We stayed at a great location. A few familiar faces - Lydia, the Belgium guy. We organised a very quick dinner - tuna/mayonnaise on bread rolls. Simple but tasty. Then showered and bed. Another good night sleep.

Monday, 27th Sept
Walked to Astorga today. Pretty quick trip, 16kms. About 5kms from our destination was a guy offering, tea, coffee, drinks and food, paid for by donation only. It was really great. I also got a ring from there.

Just settling in to the Albergue now.

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