6 May 2008

Finally, we got of to an early start. We were on the road by 6:30 because we did not take time to have breakfast. About 15 minutes into our walk, we were faced with the biggest and steepest climb ever. Thank God it was early and still sort of cool. By the time we made it up there, about 150 meters, we were both sweating and half dead and so were everyone else. It would have been impossible to muster up the energy to do that later on when the sun got up. The view from the top was of course fabulous with the sun rising in the distance and the mist lifting off the green fields. The top was flat for a little while and then, low and behold, we had to get down on the other side of the mountain. All we gained was now lost. For the most part, the Camino consisted of long straight stretches of yellowish, grayish earth. Since the road was built years ago, the rain has washed away the soft earth so that now the surface consists of extremely hard packed earth with all sizes of rocks so that one never walks on a flat surface. It is very hard on the feet. It is impossible to plant your walking poles in that earth. The scenery on either side of the road consist of rolling fields carpeted in green as far as the eye can see. Every now and then, an outcrop of rocks sticks out to add a feature to the green fields. As we walk, we see towns in the distance which get larger as we approach. The silhouette of these towns are always dominated by that of a church. The first town we came upon was Puente Fitero and Itero de la Vega where we stopped and had some breakfast. A lot of our Camino companions planned to go on to Fromista, a distance of 26kms but we planned to stop at Boadilla del Camino, 20 kms away. In Itero we came face to face with two Australian ladies that we have spent a lot of time with. We like them very much and they like us also. We all were so happy to meet and, since they were done with their breakfast, they asked if we could meet for lunch whenever there was a bar or cafe in a few hours time. By the time we got to Boadilla, we were so hot and tired, we checked into an albergue. At first sight, the place looked really ramshackle with its old barnwood door, held together by rusted hinges. However, the door opened on the most beautiful garden with sculptures, a pool, flower beds packed with colourful flowers, lilac trees, all in bloom and of different colours. There was even a pool. In a corner of the yard, there were plenty of clothes lines with clothes pegs, almost an unheard commodity here. A really friendly Portugese young man greeted us, showed us around and left us to shower and do our laundry. After all that, I suddenly remembered our good friends Stephanie and Amanda who were probably sitting somewhere waiting for us. I went to look for them and found them in the bar, another facility of our albergue. They had had their lunch but decided to stay around with us for a while before leaving for Fromista like the others. Amanda really wanted to stay but Stephanie thought they should go on a while longer. The reason everyone so wanted to get to Fromista is because in another 2 days, there is an 18km stretch of Camino which is barren, with no place to stop or sleep and they all wanted to start that distance first thing in the morning. It meant that tomorrow, they would just have to walk 20km followed by that difficult 18km. That evening, we had a communal meal with all the other guests which included a couple that we met some days ago. We get along well with them and have been keeping tabs on each other wherever we get into town. The meal was quite good probably one of the best of our trip. After dinner, we went through the usual routine of collecting our washing, filling up our water bladder in our packs and getting all our things ready for the next day. We were in bed by 10 p.m. and the snoring had already started. One gets used to everything so it doesn´t bother us much anymore. Tomorrow we plan a very early start to make up the 6km to Fromista and then the 20 to Carrion de los Condes.