Hi again, we have had 3 days of walking since leaving Leon.
We got the bus to the outskirts of the city then spent a lot of the day near a major rd, but finally got off track and arrived at the usual 10 houses , 1 church, 1 bar village and a pilgrims hostel. But the tragedy this time was that the bar shut at 2 pm as we got there. So no tea, coffee, beer etc to be had- nothing except tap water until dinner at the hostel at 7.30 pm.
Ridiculous!
It was supposed to rain yesterday and certainly looked like it was going to- but I had a talk up above and not a drop. It was much more interesting walking - at last- thru farm fields, scrub,MTS around. We passed thru a nice historic town with many old church related buildings and then out into the country again. We did 30+ kms and arrived at a hillside village at 2.30 pm 'ish. We passed some full hostels heading for our nominated one- then got told we couldn't stay there as weren't carrying all our gear!Plus our bags weren't there!
Major panic while we found a place to stay then tried to locate the bags.
Nada- no bags!
Finally a helpful man back at the first place( a little Italian man here helping out in his holidays who has 8 daughters- 4 sets of twins!!! ) rang the bag people and we found out that the bags were in a village 7 kms back!
So we had to get a 'taxi' to go back and get them!!!
Today was the best day scenery wise. We climbed a Mt to the pass of 1504m.
Absolutely freezing.I have got my gloves out ready for tmw. There was frost on the grass and plants.
We could see snow on the MTS, we walked thru hillsides of yellow broom and purple, pink heather- just lovely.
We walked down very steep slippery paths and finally got to this old town.
It is hot and busy and seems like a resort town. Oodles of hotels, B and B's etc. After showering and washing the clothes we went back into town for a drink by the river. Then another nice dinner (salad, pork chops, chips and ice-cream)
Tomorrow night we are under 200 kms to Santiago ( plus the 100 to the coast) very exciting for us. It will probably be 8 more days.
So all is well at the moment!
2 days down, 7 to go, very exciting.
Apparently at 153 kms we get markers every .5 km.Bring it on!
I felt quite unwell yesterday just before getting to our destination, and spent the rest of the day in bed.
Felt much better today for most of the walk, but had a sleep to make sure I get over it.
We walked most of the day beside a secondary road,but really quite interesting as there was a river and massive Chestnut trees- very pretty. There were vegetable patches everywhere, and roses! Lyn you would love the trillions of roses! They are in vege gardens, pot plants, corners of dirt- must be the right climate here.
There are cats all over the place- more so than dogs. Margaret hates( scared of actually) cats so of course we see them allover the place.
We expect to arrive now in Santiago next Tuesday- so 7 days to go, then will decide about continuing to the coast. I am still factoring those extra days in to the time frame, Margaret is less keen and would be happy to get the bus.
We are in a hostel tonight run by 2 Buddhist brothers, in the middle of nowhere so are having the meal they provide- can smell onions.
We walked with a Danish lady today which made a change- she lived in Greenland for years and still travels there.
We have met some amazing people with all sorts of stories which are actually what makes the walk worthwhile.
Tomorrow we have an amazing climb up a Mt and then a very long descent, will test my knees that have been complaining for the last couple of days after another descent.
Ok will sign off this blog and wait for a wifi area to send it
Keep up texts please
Carol
PS photo is of a stork nest