7 May 2008

We were on the road at 6 am. We are so pleased but, it is quite dark. We are navigating by flashlight because we need to find the Camino markers so we don´t walk in the wrong direction. It is so nice and cool. I love it. The frogs are serenading us and it is a song neither one of us have ever heard. It must be mating season for frogs here. The cacophony is loud and so unusual. The birds are just as loud. What a great start to our day which will be very long and most probably very hard. By 6:15, there is enough light to navigate without our flashlight. We are already taking our coats off and we are walking at a very good clip and, we are in Fromista by 7:30. That whole walk followed a beautiful river and ended at the locks where we had to turn to enter the town. At the first intersection, who do we see sitting at a little sidewalk cafe, our friends Amanda and Stephanie. They have just had breakfast and are on their way. They left after a little chat and Bernie had his usual cafe con leche and little cakes. The rest of the walk was long straight stretches, as far as the eye could see. At one point we had the choice of taking the highway or following the aqueduct. We chose to follow the aqueduct which had a few shady stretches along it and, again the frog were at it. Bernie decided to record their songs. By 9 it was blistering hot and we were starting to wilt. It got worse as the day progressed. After 6 hours of walking, we took a break in a small town called Villacaza de Sirga where we met San, a South African woman who spoke to us at length about the sad state of her country. It was all very depressing. Our last 6kms were absolute hell, with the sun beating down on us, sweat dripping down our faces and burning our eyes and, that is when Bernie ran out of water and started imagining himself crawling the last few meters into town with the condors circling overhead. We were after all entering Carrion de los Condes. Later that evening we met up with our friends from Australia, some of them had taken the bus in Fromista. We had a good afternoon visit of the town with them, had dinner and completed our blog. We are keeping the internet guy past his 10 o clock closing time so we have to rush and let him go home. Goodnight all.