09/06/07 Burgo Ranero to Puente de Villarente

09/06/07

Burgo Ranero to Puente de Villarente

I left at 8am after walking into the village for a coffee. Soon I am on this straight road again. There is little to look at and I am grateful of the cloud cover today as I have been now for the last two days. The new trees here are not big enough as yet to shade you as you walk and I was to take few photos today. I passed the first rest stop mentioned in my guidebook, it had a few trees and a bench to rest on and I remembered meeting a friend here before. The grass was more than knee high today and lush after last night's rain. A few frogs croaked a chorus from water in the ditch as I walked on, evidence of a wet spring. I was glad I had not weathered last night's storm here. There were a number of peregrinos all heading in the same direction but I stayed alone and eventually came to a second place and here too the grass was high around the big concrete tables and benches supplied for tired Peregrinos. I decided to make soup and eat some bread and was surprised how many peregrinos walked past, some I knew some not, but all called out
"Buen camino"
Next stop was Reliegos and here I had coffee and Spanish omelette. Somewhere after that I text home and a little while later Maisie phoned me back. Amazingly, wherever it was I had just arrived outside a factory. Here was a shade stop with tables and benches too so I was able to sit down on a table and relax and talk comfortably.
My two kids, their partners and all the grandkids were there and all said hello to me. I told them how I missed them and that it was a good day for walking because it was still cloudy after last night’s storm and that I was fit and going well.
I was thrilled to hear everybody and was very happy but now I found as I rang off that I was crying my eyes out!
Six more kms and Mansilla de las Mulos came into view. I had stopped in this village before with a big crowd of Spanish peregrinos. My shirts and trousers had just about worn out and here we discovered a little shop where I could buy some new ones and today I was still wearing one of the shirts and the other was in my bag! I have never been able to find shirts that wore so well, looked as good or dried as quickly as these two do. They were just beginning to fray at the cuff but were still serviceable. I was determined to see if that little shop was still here and if he still stocked those shirts! I racked my brain and found the street and the shop! The same man was serving a customer and I waited my turn.
"Can I help you" he said as he finished serving the lady.
"Si I want two of these," I said touching my shirt collar, "I bought two from you four years ago in this very shop and I have warn them almost every day since. I have searched the world looking for any as good but it's impossible! So now I am hoping you have two new ones or me."
"What size" he said smiling
"I have no idea, small I suppose!"
He pulled out a pair of steps and climbed up, dived his hand in a pidgin hole and came out with two shirts exactly the same white with a stripped pattern.
"Only one small but this is not much bigger. It will be ok for walking" he said noticing I had my shirt unbuttoned.
The collar size said only one number different so I took his word for it.
"Ok I'll take them how much"
The ticket pinned to the shirts said 140 pesetas!! I now realised how often he sold shirts!!!.
He jotted a few figures down on a piece of paper
"15 Euro?"
"For the two" he added as an after thought.
"Fine I'll take them." I had not seen a shirt under 30 Euro in the shops in the big towns! I could not get over that I had come halfway round the world to buy two shirts! I had tried everywhere to buy shirts as great for hiking in and never found anything remotely as good.
I looked at socks but decided not to buy any, I could manage. He meanwhile was wrapping up the shirts.
"Don’t worry, they have to pack in here" I said indicating my rucksack.
We now tore them from the cellophane and removed the card and pins. He then carefully refolded them telling me how I should do it so as not to crease them and I undid my rucksack and placed them in with my other clothes. I repacked all and zipped up and paid my 15E while we joked about meeting again in 4 years time!
I told my shirt story and had a beer with a group of friends at a table outside a bar. All were stopping here and I said goodbye and they went off to find this shop, hoping to buy a few bargains.
I like this little town and have some great memories of it. Strange how some things change, and others not, I looked into the albergue and it looked the same but the little hedge in the patio had gone and with it the pungent smell that it gave off was also gone. That smell had driven me to take a hostel round the corner while the rest of my Spanish friends had stayed here! I had returned later and we had all chipped in and the girls made a great huge pasta meal and we drank many bottles of wine that evening in this patio!
I must be much fitter now than I was then, I realised as I headed out over the bridge. I stopped turned and took a photo of the town I was leaving. This time I'm alone but it had been my choice.
My guidebook said there are no albergues in the next four villages but in 6 kms I came to Puente de Villarente. I now knew there was one here because some way back a Mercedes had stopped and a lady had given me a brochure about it. I was walking into town when the rain that had been threatening to fall most of the afternoon started. I came to the first few buildings, where signs indicated there was more than one albergue here now, but I had decided to use the one in the brochure.
It started to rain really hard so I sheltered in the lea of a building with three nice Spanish guys. The rain soon eased a little and I hurried on to find the albergue. It was run by foreigners and whilst clean, seemed to me, ridiculously regimented. After being told to remove my boots and place them in the coral I was issued a bunk. Walking with a heavy rucksack with hot sore and sweaty feet over cold slate floors is not nice! My sandals were hidden well inside my rucksack!
I washed my shirt and socks and hung them in the old open fronted coral to dry, not that they would dry much in this weather.
I took a chance when it eased a bit and went out to try to find a place to eat. The administrator had said it would be hopeless but I said I'd like to look anyway. I did make the acquaintance once again with Francesca, a Dutch lady. We had a few tapas and a drink in a rather miserable bar then when we returned to the albergue, we found everyone sitting down with salad and pasta on the table. Francesca disappeared to her dorm while I sat down with them and asked for a wine and could I eat, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears, (I am not sure whether they didn't understand or didn't want to). In the end I did get one glass of wine but not one person offered food and few even spoke to me! I thought how different were the Spanish I travelled with last time and left them to get some sleep.

END DAY 25 = approx. 24 km Sub Total = 290.3 km Total = 628.2 km

08/06/07 Moratinos to Burgo Ranero

08/06/07

Moratinos to Burgo Ranero

6.21am I am awake and taking photos of the sunrise
Peregrinos have been walking past since 5.30 am and some used the flash to take photos of my little tent, there by waking me up!! Why they start this early beats me? They must have left the albergue at 5 am in the dark! Still I'm thinking I should be off! I packed away my tent and hoped for a café soon. I walked past James house, saw his notice 'bricklayer wanted' but resisted the impulse and walked on. As I left the village I took a photo of the church. standing in the morning light with not a soul about, I could almost see Luke and his mate come round the corner as they had done just after I took that photo 4 years ago. Only the trees have grown a little in that time. I was standing on the same spot as I had then. Funny how one place sticks in your memory, maybe it was the carved yellow arrow that triggered it! San Nicolas del Real camino had a café where I bought a coffee, 7.4 km to Sahagún my book said, I could soon see it in the distance. I passed an old Ermita.









On entering town I asked for the centre and left the marked route. I found a bank and changed some cash. The town was very busy and as I came down a narrow street towards a square, a chap tagged on to me and asked where I was going. He had the look of a southern gypsy and I was suspicious of him and worried about the cash I had going missing again. He said he would show me the way and we entered the square people were setting up stalls and some knew him and asked where was he going. I spotted an arrow ignoring his glib reply to them I said
"It's ok, I know where I am going now" and briskly walked in the direction of the arrow, but he still tagged on to me. I heard a voice call my name it was Yolanda and I said goodbye to my shadow and quickly joined the girls sitting in the shade under a tree. Realising I was not going to go on he left me in peace.
It was quite hot and the girls were killing time here doing a little shopping. One sat looking after the bags while the other toured the town. There was a lot of clover here and we hunted for the one with four leaves. I found one and then Yollanda found another and gave it to me. I was happy to take it, as I had given them one each before I think. It's nice to get one back this way, it doesn't happen very often. Now rested I wanted to move on and the girls were content waiting for it to get a little cooler, so I said my goodbyes and went across the square and through the arch and over the river bridge.









On the road again I had a few problems finding the way as the arrows were not very good here. It was a lonely road and quite hard in the warm sun.









Near Bercianos there was a large clump of trees and a bench stood in the shade. Here I found one woollen sock and a map sheet, in its clear plastic holder. Ahead I could see someone coming back towards me, so thinking they must have dropped them, I picked them up and carried it towards them. Sure enough that was what had happened and whilst the lady could only speak but a few words of English, she was so grateful that I had helped her and she insisted she buy me a drink in the next bar. I gave her a four-leaf clover from the last town and agreed to the drink. We arrived Bercianos and went to the first bar and she happily paid for a coffee and cognac but she was worried she might not find a bed in the nearby albergue so we soon wished each other 'buen camino' and parted. We met many days later and everyone in the bar had to know how she had been helped by this wonderful Australian!!! It wasn't as if I had needed to carry her rucksack!!! It was a hot and uninteresting walk. This part is very hard when it is hot. Planting trees has helped the path a little. When I walked here before they were spindly saplings unable to shade their own roots let alone a hot and sweaty pilgrim. Today they are a little better and are surviving well. It just needs another 4 years growth. Still every little helps and although warm and humid it wasn’t 40 degrees today like it can get out here, I had experienced the high 30's here last time! I had been thinking that I could stop and camp today, not here but about 5 km farther on than Burgo Ranero.
I had remembered that there are two shade stops on that next leg and I remembered the first one. A stone seat, and level and grassy. It would be late when I arrived but if I stocked up on food and water in the town first, I would be ok.
Whenever I make plans something changes and this time it was the weather! As I arrived in Burgo, great big black clouds were rolling in, I dare not risk camping! Ok I knew where the albergue was as I had gone there before. They had been full but I had been given a bed. This time they were full again.
"No room" was the reply from the guy that runs the place.
"Is there anywhere else?" I asked.
"As you leave town on the right" he proffered in an uninterested voice.
Ok, I was not going to get much more help from him so I left.
I came to the edge of town and saw the arrows sending me out again into the country. No point going out there now, I thought looking up at the blackening sky. Three old people were sitting on a bench outside a building and I asked where the albergue was but they said they didn't know. I said the albergue in town is full but they told me there is another as I left town on the right?
"Try over there" said one old man pointing across to a building some way off. I could just see a notice and read 'albergue' I had found it!
I walked through a large gate onto a stone paved area between two buildings. Beyond was a stone walled grassy garden. Scattered about the garden were tables and chairs with bright coloured sunshades. The building to my left and the other to my right, both looked like dorms as they had pilgrims smelly boots outside. Seeing a Spanish lady hanging out washing on a clothes line further down, I started towards her but on the end of the first building I could now see the office and an alfresco bar.
It all looked very nice but a cool wind was getting gusty. I ordered a beer and asked the chap for a bed and filled in the forms and paid up. He told me to use the dorm on the right as I had come in. I finished my beer and went over to see it. It was a nice enough room, fairly new, three rows of bunks and a doorway at the end. Through this was a hallway, to the left a pair of basins, to the right were 2 showers and 2 toilets and at the far end an exit door which you left from in the morning. I went back and took the top bunk beside the first door where I had come in. A hot shower refreshed me and I mopped up the water - why there were no shower curtains to stop water flooding the hallway I do not know!
I washed my shirt and socks outside in a clothes washing sink and went to the garden clothesline near the bar to hang them out. Just as I started, the wind got up! Tables, umbrellas and chairs suddenly took off as did some of the washing and everyone started dashing about trying to save things. I decided hanging out washing was a bad idea!
I collected up mine again and set off back to the dorm, saving a flying table on the way. Giving it to the hospitalario I went back towards the dorm and just as I got to the door the first heavy rain arrived. Grabbing my own boots I flung them inside the door, then following them with the rest that had been put outside to air, darting inside I slammed the door to stop the rain from beating in. There seemed to be more people than beds now, and there were. Four young chaps had been visiting a mate and were stuck here with no rain gear! After a big discussion they stripped down to their shorts put their clothes in a plastic bag, opened the door and ran like hell into the storm! They had to go all the way back into town and the other albergue!
I pinned my washing on the window curtain beside my bed and decided to cook on the side of the sink in the wash room. It was very difficult as people were still showering and water from there and from under the bottom of the outside door was now flooding the hall. Still I ate and many didn't. No one was going to town to find a restaurant tonight!
Back in my bunk I closed my eyes to sleep, listening to the wind and rain buffeting the outside. I was very glad I had not walked on to camp out tonight!

END DAY 24 = approx. 28 km Sub Total = 266.3 km Total = 604.2 km

07/06/07 Villalcázar de Sirga to Camp Moratinos

07/06/07

Villalcázar de Sirga to Camp Moratinos

The girls had gone by the time I awoke so I set off on my own. Soon I was walking the straight road with the path for us peregrinos on the right-hand side.
I made good time and arrived at Carrion in an hour and it is 5.8 km. On the way I realised I had not placed money in the donation box at the albergue. It was too late to think about it now, I was not going to walk back 5.8 kms but I did feel guilty! Carrion is a nice town and I took a few photographs here then took a coffee in a bar in town and met a few peregrinos I knew, but again I set off alone.










The next stage to Calzadilla has no shade and no water, so my book said, and was 17.2 kms. The weather now had changed to warm and I knew this stretch from before. Just outside of town I stopped and took off my waistcoat and was fixing it on my rucksack when a cyclist wearing the usual crash hat, tight black pants and brightly coloured top, stopped turned round and came over to take my photo! After Holde I was not too fazed out by this. He smiled and said "You don’t recognise me do you? I am from the albergue the hospitalaria!" I realised then who he was and we shook hands and he wished me "Buen camino" and said he was keeping fit riding and would do a round circuit of some 20kms round and back to the albergue. Just as he rode out of sight I again remembered I had not paid for my bed! Too late again I kicked myself for not remembering! Soon I had to take a left turn and made good time down a pretty country road. A while later I saw my small road met with another road, here a lady was sitting on a small low sequía wall eating an apple. There had been hedgerows but little shade or anything to sit on and I asked if I might join her on the little brickwork wall and eat my apple too. Here we sat eating and chatting when suddenly a voice calls out to me and I see my hospitalaria friend riding back home on the other road. I shouted back calling for him to stop and he turned round and rode back to me. I explained I had not paid for my lodgings last night and was embarrassed that on seeing him again, I still had not remembered, now I asked would he take my payment back for me please. He said it didn't matter and not to bother, but I insisted and smiling he took the few Euro and we waved and shouted encouragement to each other as he rode off. I said goodbye to my new friend and continued my camino. The track became a rough un-surfaced road and went on for about 8 km from Carrión and here I found some enterprising person had set up a portable building as a café just a week before and they were doing extremely well. I also stopped and had a cool beer and a piece of tortilla and to my surprise the two Spanish girls arrived. I chatted for a while but then I moved off again to complete the second half to Calzadilla. It was very hot when I arrived at Calzadilla and finding a restaurant with a bar and outside a bright shade over some of its tables I decided to rest and let it cool a bit before continuing on. Yolanda and her friend arrived and we had a few laughs together, massaged our feet and relaxed.













We were joined by a few more peregrinos, many of whom ate in the restaurant inside. The girls were tired and I was the first to leave and as I left town I passed a donkey and three French ladies sitting in the shade of a few trees. I was to keep seeing them from now on. A donkey might carry their packs but finding grass, shelter and accommodation for him and them at times I think was a problem. It was quite hot and hard going but I passed Ledigos and got to Terradillos. I remembered stopping here before, in the albergue. I had told myself I should stop in different places this time, I thought maybe I could camp tonight, it was sunny and it could be a warm night. As always finding a flat spot and away from a village was difficult. The track was not as I remembered. It was one of the places where the route had been altered since I had walked before. I was tired when I came down to a little stream, its banks lined with trees and a small bridge over it. There was a well with a hand pump for drawing water, but a sign said it was not drinkable. I believed it, as the stream water looked a bit polluted too but it was a nice spot. Other little boards had poems and welcome sayings scribbled on them. On the top cover of the well stood a cold box, a bowl of fruit and other goodies and a donation or honesty box. I looked at putting up my tent here and thought it might just be possible but I was not too sure about it. I sat and ate my banana and drank some water as I rested on a bench in the shade, deciding what to do.
Just then an old car pulled up, inside was a young man and his wife and a small child. The young lady got out and started to replenish the oranges and bananas and I bought one from her and was given a beer by her husband James. We chatted for a while, they were both English and lived now in the next village and were doing this to help out their sparse income, while they rebuilt the old village house. I also had done this with my wife and young family in the 70's and knew how tough life like that can be, I also remembered the rewards of getting out of the rat race! But believe me, it takes a lot of guts! "We have a Mongolian tent set up in the garden come sleep in there" they generously offered. "It's what we used it when we first arrived" I was tempted but reclined the offer and said I would set up my little tent in the next field. "Ok, but if there is anything you want, call by, you know where we live, the house with the green door!" They piled back in the old motor and shunted it round, and bumped their way up the muddy track, going out the way they had come into this remote little stream valley. The first rays of sunset were casting across the meadows as I set up my little tent alongside the path in a field of cut corn a few hundred meters after crossing the stream and climbing out that little valley.

END DAY 23 = approx. 35.3 km Sub Total = 238.3 km Total = 576.2 km

06/06/07 Ermita de San Nicolás to Villalcázar de Sirga

06/06/07

Ermita de San Nicolás to Villalcázar de Sirga

Now again my poor notes let me down. I walked on into the next village and I was with someone and we called into an albergue that has a nice bar and we had a coffee and tortilla for breakfast on the patio and another couple joined us at our table. We two left together but I am unsure who it was now, maybe Karin, I only remember walking beside the imperial canal de Castilla with her walking behind me and when we reached the lock I stopped a while, sitting and attending to my poor feet while she went on.


The canal was built in the XVIII century and was supposed to connect Castile with the Cántabros seaports but was never completed. There are 210 kms of canal left I am told and I wonder why the track doesn't follow the canal further but alas it doesn't. This quadruple lock is a beautiful spot, from here I entered the town and looked at the magnificent church but they want money to go inside, so I never went right in. The church is not used, they told me there is another built nearby that is. Is it because this was a Templers church?

I do not know and never asked! The track seemed different to my book again. I appeared to be on a stony road that went out to a small village and here I found a small bar set on a corner with shady trees. I bought a beer and slept a while. I bought and ate a fine bocadillo and chatted to the owner and his friends and just as I was leaving two Spanish girls, Yolanda
and her friend, came and sat down to rest on the grass. I went over to them and we soon all left together. We came to the main road to Frómista and from here it is a straight line into town with not a tree for shade.









I remembered walking this in the heat in 2003 and one of my bootlaces hooked on to the other boot tying my feet together! To my embarrassment I fell flat on my face alongside my companion.
As I told Yolanda the story, I quickly glanced down to see if my socks were folded over the boot hooks this time! I had two young ladies with me and didn't want it to happen again! Even today this was a hard walk, there is little to see and we were all happy to arrive and we entered the albergue there and while booking in were told to help ourselves to a bowl full of succulent cherries in water. I noticed there were very few cherries left, as we climbed the stairs to find our beds! We settled in and showered, we had a choice of cold or hot!!!

We did our washing then looked at the church and were unable to enter but the priest gave us a brilliant commentary all about it and why it was so unique. Much of his speech I have forgotten, but again it was because this was a Templers church and he insisted, the only really important one!




We found a little shop and managed to buy a few bits, just enough to cook a meal tonight. We did so in the little kitchen come dinning room, and we shared our produce and ate very well and the two girls were very good company.

END DAY 22 = approx. 28.2 km Sub Total = 203.0 km Total = 540.9 km

05/06/07 Hornillos to Ermita de SanNicolás

05/06/07

Hornillos to Ermita de SanNicolás

At last I had a friend to walk with, Ernesto. He and I were taken to the village and soon were out in open country, the fields of poppies fascinated me giving unbelievable blood red splashes to the landscape. Any artist putting that colour red to a canvas would be told it can't be that colour! It's straight from the tube, tone it down! But believe me the morning sun would hit the poppies as the clouds scudded overhead and they would become even brighter, no camera could capture the magic and there is magic on this camino.





I think it was in the little village of San Bol that you suddenly see after walking across the wind swept fields of green corn, that we found a nice café and bar. There was only one last time I came here, now there were three and they all seemed to be albergues. After a nice omelette bocadillo sitting in the weak sun in the square, we retired to the warm bar for a cognac then hit the road again.








Ernest walked behind most of the time so I had the walk to myself for a while taking the dirt path from Hontanas till coming down and meeting the road again to the ruins of San Anton, an old XIV century Convent. There is no village, as Leprosy was the common sickness of the peregrino and they were treated here.




Soon we could see Castrojeriz, the hill covered on one side red with poppies.
I had terribly bad feet last time and was so tired, while now I felt only a little tired yet I had walked 20 kilometres. We looked at an albergue, but passed it by, my friend saying he would look for a casa rural. There was an awful amount of work going on in the village and we could hardly pass along the main street. The work seemed to finish a bit and we found a local bar and sat at the bar on the stools. Ernest was going to stop here while I thought I must go on, I had a place to visit here and wanted to do the impossible and go on much further like I had done before. No one with that idea should not get in to drinking good red wine! Then the conversation got round to orujo! Now we had to try the four different types till having got the entire bar going. There had been no one here when we arrived! Now it was full of peregrinos chatting about the hardships of camino, chuckle. I must have started that with stories of El Ebro. I embraced my new companion and wished him well, drank a free orujo from the barman and got outside and set off up the street hoping I was not staggering too much. I came round a corner and here was what I wanted, A row of houses and shops with a row of pillars supporting the top floor leaving a covered walkway underneath. I strolled along the flagstones thinking of what had happened to me last time. At the end I stopped as before, outside a hardware store. This time raincoats were hanging on the pillar. Last time I had slept here on the stones in 40° heat in 2003.
On waking had been compelled to touch that round pillar with my back! I had been embarrassed to do it, even though I was alone at the time. I was now but I touched the stone and feeling its firm rough texture under my palm, I patted it and said a little "thank you" to myself.
My confidence returned and I turned and went into the shop. The same old man who had left his shop unlocked while I had lain in front on the flagstones to sleep was serving a customer, I had no idea why I had come in but seeing hat badges on a rack I stood and selected one. I'll take that one of Castrojeriz please" I said to the old man as he came to serve me.
He took the one and started to wrap it up.
"Why is the pillar outside your shop round and all the others square? I asked
"It's from another age" was his smiling reply.
I then told my story of last time I was here and he nodded with a knowing glint in those old eyes. No I don’t think he was thinking I was nuts!
I went out of the small town taking the dirt road across the flat valley floor.
There is a raised track at one place and is, I think, the original way here. I saw two men on bikes come towards me and then stop and turn round while a female dropped her bike and filmed them riding the last section before the tracks meet. She was a very pretty girl and as I too took my turn on this section she waved and filmed me as I too arrived. She called out and carried out an interview with me as the two chaps listened. I don’t think I have met a more vivacious young lady as she kept getting me to move so she could get the best angle and photos of me, my sticks, and my many hat badges. Holde was incredible and I fell for her charm immediately. Holde said like the Australian car Holden without the N she assured me, while I wrote it down to be sure. We chatted for some time swapping stories.
They were from Germany I believe, I should write these things down at the time but I didn't. I gave her my card and she promised to email me the photos. This photo is one she kindly sent to me. I waved, wished them luck and left them riding and photographing in the same place again. Now I soon came to the steep climb up on the other side of the valley. I was almost at the top and still thinking about them and when I turned my head and looked back to see where they were, I couldn't see them anywhere. Looking forward again I was amazed. I could see I had all but reached the top! I had walked with seventeen kilos up this killing climb and not even noticed I had been climbing!!! I had not stopped once! I felt a shiver. I had only patted the pillar this time but it had done the same as before, then I had walked out into the heat and across this valley and up to here without effort. I stopped at the top to take photos.
Three young peregrinos were there on a bench resting. I had no need but drank a swig of water before leaving them to rest while I crossed the top to the other side and looked out across the wide expanse before me.

Not a house could be seen but I knew it was there far away hidden in a valley near a river. Last time it had been almost frightening to know I had to face the heat and head out across here not knowing how far the next water was. I started down now and Holde and her companions came by and as steep as it was, they all shouted and waved as they skidded and slid trying to pick the best parts of the rough track. By the time I had reached the bottom where it had been remade, they had disappeared.


Probably half an hour later I came over a small hill and there on the now rough and narrow track I saw them working on Holde's bike. They seemed to be doing ok but said they had to change their plans now.
"We go on to the next big town for parts. Holde would only be able to use one gear all the way."
She is taking photos of me all the time we are chatting.
"I have something for you to bring you luck, it will help you get there and get the parts."
I gave her a four-leaf clover, it was my own clear laminated one, for bringing me luck!
"I find them all the time. I will soon find another I assured her"
She hugged me, kissed me on both cheeks and took more photos! The boys embraced me and shook hands and with a "Bueno camino" and the three rode off, leaving me with an empty feeling hoping I would see them again but almost knowing that was not to be.
It is 10 kms from Castrojeriz to the ermita San Nicolas of Itero de la Vega. They are hard too, there is that first mountain and not a tree for shade all the way. This time I was lucky, as it was cloudy much of the time. I passed the fountain where I remembered filling my water bottle, as I had none left then. It looked as if the fountain had been neglected since the new tarmac road had been laid I thought!
I was sure I had taken the wrong way at a junction because I could see a village to my right and I did not remember seeing one before. There are few markers here, no trees to paint with yellow arrows.
Then I saw it as I remembered, there before the bridge as it has been for hundreds of years. This time I could not see any peregrinos outside the Ermita. At least, although tired, I was feeling better too as I came up to the door. That was different too, being wide open this time, light flooding inside. The Priest was a different man (they change often I was told). He sat at the table with a young lady who had the registration book in front of her. I was asked to sit down and fill in the form and was given a bed. This time inside the Ermita, a top bunk at the end by the stairs. I rested a little while then showered and washed my clothes and hung them to dry behind the building. Then went for a walk to the bridge to look at the river. It was very full this time. Then I saw the peregrinos entering the Ermita and hurried back and I was again the last there. We were asked to sit and say a small prayer around the alter with its gold shining icons. The service was read in Italian, Spanish and English and then we were asked to remove our socks and the young lady who had done the paper work now washed and kissed and blessed our feet.


The man had done it last time, I have now had my feet blessed by both sexes, chuckle. At least this time I knew what was going to happen. Last time it had been a miracle that I had washed my feet under the pump before staggering in here to eat not knowing what was going to happen.
When I arrived at this Ermita for the very first time, I had come from bright sunlight into complete darkness. The first words I had heard came from a priest who was standing in the darkness just inside the door.
"Arr! You are the Australian, for you I have a bed"
I don't know how he knew that! I still don't!
This time had been different but as I sat down to eat at the long table that had been laid down the length of the hall, a lady sitting almost opposite uttered, as I sat down,
"Arr! You are the Australian" and I almost leapt from my seat!

After dinner the word went round that we should all go to the village for a drink and our priest and the lady plus a number of peregrinos were going so I put on my boots and joined them. It was a wonderful star-lit night and was a good kilometre but we were in good spirits. They were all good company and we had some interesting conversations round the table. When we all decided to call it a night after a few wines, we sang all the way back. One elderly man was from England. I had met him a several times, he was a year or two younger than I but wore a hat very similar and had done a fair bit of camino travelling. Laughter, old English, Irish and Aussie songs echoed into the night joined a terrible rendering of 'Oh Solo Mio' for or Italian friends.

END DAY 21 = approx. 30.3 km Sub Total = 174.8 km Total = 512.7 km

04/06/07 Cardeñuela de Río Pico to Hornillos

04/06/07

Cardeñuela de Río Pico to Hornillos

I slept well enough - probably the drink! I seemed to be the only one walking, the others had bikes. Back on the road it was very quiet as I made my way along the road. It was pleasant and I passed through Orbaneja then Villafria then at Gamonal I started the normal entrance to a big town again Burgos! It was the horrible main road and industrial strip. On reaching what I thought might be near the main town, I asked at a couple of different banks if they could change some Australian dollars and was always directed to the head office or main bank, city centre. One attempt to get in a big bank that I thought might be the main bank of a big banking chain was quite funny. It was drizzling rain and I was dressed in my rain cape!
I went up to a glass door and had to pull it hard towards me. It opened, I move smartly forward, as it springs closed behind me pushing on my rucksack and clicked shut! I can't move! There is another glass door in front that doesn't open. I am stuck with my face inches from the glass in front. I am in a glass cabinet not much bigger than a telephone box, I hear a loud mechanical Darlek voice
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again" and every time I touched the door in front it repeated it
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
My Spanish was good enough to understand but I could not move, let alone remove my rucksack or any weapons I may have had anyway!
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
bump bomp!
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
I shouted and waved as best I could at a bank teller serving a customer, the teller was facing me but twenty feet away, behind a glass screen on the far side of the large room before me.
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
"I want to change Australian Dollars, do you do that?"
"Leave your weapons in the foyer and try again"
He and his surprised customer spotted this army khaki wrapped figure gesturing at him!
Suddenly, realising I'm just some tourist nut not a bandit, he shook his head and called back
"Try the main bank in the centre of town."
Well ok, now I didn't have to enter, and although the voice kept on, I now put my mind into turning round and flattened my face against the glass eee-shurrump! went the rucksack against the opposite glass! I'd managed to get half round. Once more, eee-shurrump! suddenly it went again and I am facing outwards! I grabbed my staffs heaved on the handle and putting my shoulder to the door stumbled out into the street again complete with my weapons!!!! What a photo shoot that would have made for a funny home video!

At last I was in town or at least on the edge of it. Here I found a bank to change my notes and I enjoyed the fountain before entering the old city.









Soon I came to the Catheadral. I never found the entrance and know there must be much more to see here but my itchy feet sent me on. It was a nice walk and a different way to last time where I followed the river all the way, but I did come down to it later. First I found a charming lady who said she was just starting her camino but coffee called and I stopped in a bar then continued later.


Out of town again I walked seeing several peregrinos, spoke to some but stayed alone. The arrows took us to the right and we took a rough road with bulldozed trees and hedgerows. I stopped, dumped my bag down and searched for a new staff and finding one cut it to length and pealed off the bark. I took my big one to pieces and with the other old one, that was now bent like a bow, I fixed both of them on the outside of my rucksack. Hands free, I could walk and trim up the new one. It was sturdier and I hoped it would dry and stay straight! It cut well and I thought it was chestnut but was not sure. I walked for miles working on the stick hardly noticing where I was. I drew on where I was going to put my Templers cross and the four-leaf clover and started carving them on the staff. I was walking with some ladies for a while and we crossed a stream not sure if we were right. It all looked different than before to me. Puzzled I noticed there was a lot of new building work going on and then looking again at the stream I remembered it now, last time the same stream had been very green and natural. Now it was neat and tidy, its banks lined with stone and very colourful, yes wild flowers capping and transforming its banks, I'm not sure how I felt. The camino is the old way, I wanted to see it as that, as it had been, not with just another neat park look! Next time there will be a new village here I think! Next village was Villabilla. I think it was here I took a photo of the unique fountain by Gaudí.

I had a photo of it but I had got a finger over the lens and spoilt it. This time I did better and in one a young peregrino was crossing the shot.


We were to meet later as we climbed up a hill many miles further on. After Rabé the camino climbs high and crosses a plain and it can be a hard journey her for 8 kilometres. I was lucky this time, the wind was ok, and the sunshine seldom and showers few. I came down into Hornillos pretty tired and met two Canadian ladies and one kindly took my photo by the village name.


Hornillos has a special meaning for me. It was here I got taken to a Casa Rural and I joined a fiesta and drank and dined for three days with a most wonderful host. I decided I would try to see them again. I called into a little shop and bought some food and drink and helped the two ladies buy things and I asked the lady behind the counter if the Casa Rural El Molino was still open
"Yes of course, why?"
I told her of the wonderful time I had had there and would like to see them again, she said
"The son is across the road you must speak with him."
I did not remember seeing a son but she dragged me to meet the young man. He was very pleasant and listened to me, then made a phone call on his mobile and said he would take me there, he was sure it would be ok, but he was unable to contact his mother at the moment.
"You go to the bar in the square and wait and I will collect you from there."
I thanked him and the shop lady and went up to the bar to wait. This was similar to what had happened before, that time I had asked in the bar itself for something other than the albergue and been collected by an older gentleman with a beard. We had tried all the wine in the bar before driving the eight kms to the El Molino.
I only had a couple of tinto de veranos this time before the young man called in and I loaded my rucksack in his car.
Sadly my memory for names has let me down again although I knew it when introduced to the same bearded smiling face on my arrival, Paco I think.
I was shown my clean room with a superb view and clean shower room with hot water! Oh I had arrived in paradise again! I was welcomed by the dueña and she looked hard and then her face lit up and said
"Yes you have a different hat this time!"
She did remember me! She explained that my timing was out this time, sorry there was no fiesta! She told me later when I gave her a koala that she only had one other Spanish gentleman staying, a peregrino like me. This place is charming, the river runs right under the house and the mill now generates electricity for the house or at least it did last time I stayed here. It deserves a much longer stop than I could do this time. Nearby there are hot springs and as I understood my host to say they are being developed and a hotel built too. Paco joined Ernesto and me at our main meal in the dining room that night and we ate and drank well. I found Ernesto good company and conversationalist and time flew. We retired and arranged to be on our way at seven thirty in the morning.

END DAY 20 = approx. 35 km Sub Total = 144.5 km Total = 482.4 km