More Difficult Today. Must Be Monday!
Another interesting and dramatic sunset last night. The fifth in the past two weeks.
Really interesting textures. A very calm ending to the day.
I went back outside a bit later for a peak. The colours had softened and the sky looked much gentler.
This morning we were up early, but being that we were out of bread Annemarie informed me that her sour dough culture need to be used almost at that exact moment. Really? So we delayed walking until the bread was baked. Maybe a pandemic thing? Turned out really nicely today, but then it almost always does. I was going to start baking bread some months ago, but then Annemarie picked it up and has been enjoying it so much that I decided that sometimes it's just better to step back and eat the results! After all, she was going to write in retirement and I'm doing that. I guess we are in balance! Already looking forward to breakfast tomorrow!!
So at 9:00 we headed for the door and likely wouldn't have made it out except we each thought the other wanted to walk 20 kms today. Turns out neither of wanted to, but the buddy system served to get us out the door today. A good thing.
Well into the walk we looped across the beach to run the stairs. I run them, Annemarie climbs them in a more sensible manner. But my pal Dennis is waiting for me to start high tempo bike rides with him next week, so I have to make sure the legs are ready. Our rides never start out like that, but they always seem to find their way there! Half the fun.
We were delighted to find this large family out for a morning stroll and munch. My parents will be so excited. The big news yesterday where they live was that the ducks showed up in the pond behind their place with a huge bunch of tiny chicks. Tis the season.
Recovering at the top of the stairs and waiting for Annemarie I thought a sun shot might be fun.
It's rhodo time here and of course I had to stop and look. Magnificent colour, texture and form.
Meanwhile, back on the Camino we are just exiting town in the early October light, with promises of a good sunrise. I remember that there were hardly any other peregrinos on the trail that morning, and we used our headlights to guide ourselves until there was adequate natural light.
Ken and Marianne joined us that morning and I believe that it was the first time the four of us walked together. Something that would continue until Leon where Marianne would head home to Denmark.
This would have been Moratinos in the soft morning light.
Apparently there'd been a few issues near town. Usually it's a dog with the don't do it red circle and single slash line on the sign, but I know some pilgrims aren't very considerate and don't clean up after themselves, so I don't blame the town.
The early golden light was particularly special that morning.
In 2018 with wine bodegas to the right.
The regional crossing into Palencia. I remembered this marker from 2013.
Sahagun coming up next! A favourite town. Not sure why, but seems to have a nice vib.
A beautiful little bridge took us to the Ermita Virgen del Puente, which true to form was closed in 2013.
In 2018, quiet and no Annemarie. Still closed.
This gate by the Ermita a few kilometres out of Sahagun is considered the official halfway point on the Spanish portion of the Camino Frances.
In 2018 I wrote;
I caught up to over 30 peregrinos today. By far the most I’ve seen on any single day. I think the longer distances I’ve recently put in has resulted in my basically jumping a traditional stage and finding the next lot. Sometimes peregrinos kind of stack up together making everything a bit busier. When I depart Leon they should arrive later that day and most like me, will take a day here. This particular bubble should hopefully stay behind me.
In 2013, 16.5 kms later and we were in the centre of Sahagan at 10:45. You had to leave early on the warm days. I said goodbye to a nice German fellow I'd been conversing with over the previous days as he was going to wait here for his wife to join him to walk into Santiago together. As is common, I never saw him again.
In 2018 as I was walking into Sahagan I knew that I badly needed a break having had just one day off in the past 42 stages, and having a now solidly entrenched case of sinusitis which was just getting progressively worse in the unseasonable cold of Northern Spain. I was desperate for a break. As I walked past the non-passenger side of the train rails while entering Sahagan I saw a hole in the fence, and decided to not walk the very long way around through town and back out to the train station. I wrote;
I’m sitting in the bar at the train station in Sahagun where I’ve just enjoyed a nice tortilla y patata and a cold glass of Aquarius. Today I was away fairly early to walk to Sahagun in order to catch a train to Leon, about 45-50 kms. I’ve only taken one rest day on this Camino, the last one being two weeks ago with Annemarie in Jaca. I had been planning to take a day in Leon, but if I’d walked in my day off would have been this Sunday when everything is closed. With this little adjustment I will be there tomorrow and walk out Saturday morning. I wasn’t planning to re-walk the Roman Road so my walk would have been alongside a busy highway. Gronze calls it a very flat stage beside a very busy highway and rates the stage quality as very low. I will have one more day of Meseta walking when I leave Leon which will be a nice way to wind up this part of the Camino. I’ve been listening to my body and the past couple of days it’s been telling me to take a restorative day... So I will, and I’m really looking forward to it. Leon is a very nice city with lots to see and good restaurants. This will be my third visit there, so it’s become quite comfortable and familiar.
The sad part of this was that I'd really been looking forward to seeing Sahagan again. Oh well I have a few photos from 2013.
As I said, Sahagun is considered the midway point of the Spanish portion of the Camino Frances and they erected a plaque to this effect.
Just after Sahagun you have to make the decision to walk the shorter highway route or take the longer Calzada Romana via Calzadilla de los Hermanillos, which what we chose to walk.
Of course half the fun when walking along the Camino is when you find the unexpected. You expect the hardships, the heat, the rain, a small place to stop for refreshment, but to wander through a flock of sheep is pure magic!
Then you're on the variant,
and into Calzada del Coto, a small village just like so many small villages on the Meseta. Tired and used up, but still welcoming to the peregrino. Grateful for a cold water fonte in a shaded plaza on a hot day.
Just past the village we find many more sheep.
Many!
Then it's over the train tracks.
And we began walking through a scrub-like arid area which I imagine is a bit like parts of our central plains or the fringes of the Australian outback (not the desert part).
There is nothing but scrub along here for 9 kms until our destination.
The way is marked by a pilgrim cat (or something), and we only saw these signs along this variant.
There is a potable water stop in a beautiful stand of trees,
complete with a rest place (and swings?) that I'd marked on my map just a few kilometres from Calzadilla.
Our destination.
Ken's notes from the stage;
6 October, Calzadilla de los Hermanillos
Another longish 26 km day. Cold this morning, warmed up this afternoon. Arrived here and saw Geoff from Victoria at [this] upscale albergue/pension, [and] decided to spend €15 to avoid another night of bunk beds. Attic room small but it’s only one night. Same transom/skylight as in Prague. Changed out of sweaty clothes, hung up to dry on rack without other people’s clothes on it. Now just relaxing. Marianne looks all in and will likely fall asleep
As I remember, Geoff was working on his blog with his iPad. I was amazed that anyone could walk 30 km and then write a blog entry.
Saw [a] flock of sheep being driven down [the] road to Sahagún. One of the dogs was very intent, the other found a bone and was digging it out of the grass in the roundabout. The shepherd [seemed] unconcerned. Marianne saw him throw stones to tell the dogs what to do. Sound of bells and after, sheep shit. Green marks on the heads of some--slaughter?
Arrozo con leche for dessert!
We were all in the same place that night! Very memorable. There was this very small grocery store, that might be an over exaggeration, where we picked up a few supplies. The owner is the short guy, dwarfed by Ken.
And Neil's shot. Sarah, you are so much taller!
We enjoyed each other's company that night. Everyone getting to know each other a bit better every time we were together. Seems that it stuck! In just a few hours we will again meet for the 5th gathering on this, our virtual camino. I'm looking forward to that. Guess I'd better send out the maps for the next stages.
Buen Camino!
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