Sunny Spain at last!

Well all I can say is thank you! thank you! From reading your comments I think all your positive SUNNY thoughts are working. Yes I have had some sunshine and it´s glorious. I shall never take those beautiful rays for granted ever again. All your comments are truly appreciated and do keep me going. You don´t know HOW MUCH!
Having the extra day off in the wonderful Moanstery Hotel San Zoilo made all the difference - I felt very strong the next day and walked to the halfway point of Terradillos de los Templarios 26.8km, (400.5km) and felt great at the end of it. I´ve obviously walked into good fitness. My shins have settled (thanks Annie P - keep up up the healing work). They don´t hurt now but are very odd shapes. A bit alarming really. My two big toes are numb - thankfully I have 8 more. They are doing fine.
The little village of Terradillos de los Templarios was a former strong hold of the Knights Templar who gave protection and hospitality to pilgrims in the early years of the Camino. The Albergue Jaques de Molay here follows those principles with a warm welcome, home cooked food and a very atmospheric hostel. I´ve voted the showers the best so far - very hot, lots of pressure and hooks behind the door. Some showers are cold and the flow is only strong enough to wet my big toe - seriously. This is luxury. I think I´ve only had about 4 hot showers in the refugios so far. On really cold days, I don´t shower. But that´s just between you and me!
The village is predominantly built of clay bricks with rendering of mud and straw. It has a shabby old world feel yet somewhat colourful with the warm orange colours of the clay. The villages in this area all appear quite poor, with many houses seemingly shuttered up with no one living in them.
The walking continued across the meseta again today. As I left Carrion I was none too happy as I thought it would be 17 km before I could have my morning coffee (Jack can tell you what I´m like with the ¨no coffee grumps¨- you know what I mean Geoff)- there were no villages along this stretch. But amazingly at the 8km mark a lovely man has set up a ¨cafe¨in the middle of the wheat fields. A transportable hut from which he serves tea and coffee sits amongst tables and chairs. He has a charcoal BBQ for grilling the spicy chorizo sausage, ready to pop onto the everpresent bocadillos (bread sticks). He does this 5 months of the year, driving 20km each day from an albergue where he boards. He can´t be making much out of it. He started offering this service to pilgrims 2 years ago after he walked the Camino himself. He was correct in identifying a need right in this spot. I left his ¨Cafe in the Wilderness¨with a lightness in my step and joy in my heart. Caffeine is an underestimated drug
Yellow irises and the first of the deep purple lavender were my colourful friends today with birdsong loud and happy even in the wheatfields when there were no trees. There must be lots of worms and insects in the wheat as the birds are continually flying in and out of the knee high crops. Earlier in the more wooded area cuckoos were singing. I never tire of their call as we don´t have them at home.
Miracle of miracles, we had sunshine this afternoon. The atmosphere in the albergue garden was so bright with everyone enjoying the warmth and sitting outside together chatting instead of shivering in our sleeping bags. We are very grateful now for the weather we´ve had as we heard that where we have come from has been suffering floods and hail so thick they have the snow sweepers out. So I will not complain about the weather again! Promise!
Terradillos de los Templarios to El Burgo Ranero 30.9km Total so far is 439.4 km.
SOME PEOPLE .. got up very early this morning, 5a.m. Firstly you hear a quiet moving about. Then once they are up for about 10 mins, they are more confident and then the dance known as The Plastic Bag Shuffle begins. The basic tempo is: rustle, rustle, zip. Rustle, rustle, zip. then about 5.15, some blind person thought putting on the light might help. It´s at that point there is a collective groan from those of us wanting a wee bit more sleep, particularly as that night we had the sound effects of either food poisoning or too much Happy Hour, throughout the night and a snorer who had THE most unusual snore I´ve ever heard. Nothing is private in an Albergue.
With such an early wake up call it meant I was on the trail in semi-darkness, and it was worth it. It was cloudy again but at that hour the clouds were a dark blue-grey. Quite dramatic in the early light. A light rain didn´t dampen my spirits as coffee was only an hour or so away so I was a happy little pilgrim. It was market day when I got to the larger town of Sahagun. Stalls of fresh produce, cured meats, cheeses, shoes, cheap clothing, sheets, towels, more shoes stretched from the town square Plaza Mayor and around the narrow streets beyond.
An apple and custard pastry , coffee and browse of the market, and I was on my way. I was putting in a long day today so wanted to get back on the path. More grain fields and some wetlands as well resplendent with the sound of frogs. It´s not a sound we hear much these days as we have done our best to frighten them off with chemical and polluted waterways, so it was lovely to hear them well and happy in rainy Spain. The birds hanging out nearby were bright and colourful - some were red and white, others vivid yellow and green. they were like little finches. Most of the wildlife I observe is on the ground because that´s where I´m looking a lot of the time.
Earlier on I was fascinated by the thick black striated slugs in the Basque and Navarre areas. In the Leon area they are brown with red edges. Worms are about a foot long and a rosy pink. But my favorites are the beetles with such long legs they look like they are delicately walking on stilts. Some have fine white stripes and others even longer legs like they are walking on tippy toes on stilts. When one is walking up to 8 hours a day, the smallest things amuse - literally!.
The Albegue in El Burgo was another cold shower abode but as they say in the guide book, the lack of facilities is made up up for by the atmosphere and charm. And it was. The hospitalero gave me the last bed and a flower - all in Spanish so I don´t know what on earth he was chattering about. But a bed and a flower - I was happy. One thing I´ve noticed about the Spanish is that they are never put off by the fact that you don´t understand them. They will happily talk on for ages explaining all manner of things even when they know you don´t understand a word. They just love talking and trying to be helpful. I had a lady at the post office today sitting next to me today - yes you line up sitting down- chatting away happily to me even though all I could do was nod, smile and shrug my shoulders.
Oops, sorry, back to El Burgo. The Albergue was purpose built using the local building genre of clay bricks daubed with mud and straw. The ceiling was rough timbers following the roof line. All rustic and charming. A pillow and blanket meant for a comfortable night. As I arrived in town I was so pleased to meet old friens, Yvonne from Slovenia and Jane and Brian from Manchester. We made a happy group in the bar that night for dinner.
El Burgo to Mansilla de las Mulas 24.5km
Nearly the end of the meseta and the endless cereal crops. It has been lovely to have the wide open spaces of the meseta, and enjoy the quietness and solitude. This day was THE perfect walking day. We had a weak sun , soft breeze and it was cool enough to walk comfortably at a brisk pace. It was 13km before the first village and as I walked into it I could hear music. In the distance was a bar. I wondered if the music was coming from there. I stopped frequently to take photos of passages running undergound from the street with soil mounded over them An old wizened local man stop to explain what they were. The only word I understood was vino, so I am thinking they are storage cellars, although I have been told since, meat is smoked in them as well, and maybe people live in them too. Not sure about that - it´s all a mystery. Wish I could speak Spanish - Jodie and Karolina, I need you badly.
As I got closer to the bar, there was Yvonne outside dancing to Elvis singing ¨You look like an Angel¨Jane and Brian were there a well. They had walked in to ¨Blue Suede Shoes¨. The bar tender/barista, was an Elvis desperate with 300 songs on his MP3. He was a hoot as he kept popping out of the bat to check how many clients were at the bar next door. If there were none, he´d give a little jig and run back inside to make the next coffee. We were all very happy sitting in the sun soaking up some cheery camino atmosphere. I decided the next leg of the journey needed music, so for the first time I put in the ear plugs and walked into Mansilla to Charlotte Church - a wee more subdued than Elvis but fitting for my last day on the meseta.
From there I met up with Yvonne again and we decided we would miss the highway haul into Leon and take the bus, so giving us some extra time in Leon. Yvonne has Spanish and found that a local man could drive us into Leon within the next hour. As it was raining and not conducive to sightseeing in Mansilla we took him up on his kind offer. He refused any payment, however said with a wink that if we had been male pilgrims it might have been different.
Leon is a beautiful city, with the old part centred around the magnificent cathedral which has a stunning array of stained glass windows. The winding narrow streets are reminicient of Paris. Sunshine today has brought out the tourist in me, and I´ve enjoyed wandering the streets, sitting at an outside cafe and generally relaxing. As we pilgrims tend to hang out around the cathedrals we run into each other a lot. Yvonne and I did just that, and spent a lovely hour talking about life etc. We both agreed how priviledged we are to be on such a journey.
And ao to more sight seeing. Back on the camino again tomorrow. Until the next computer...
Adios and Muchos Gracias
Annie

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