A humdinger of a day

I’m still waking up at 1until 3 am, tossing around trying to get back to sleep. I eventually do, but 7am then comes very quickly. I had a quick shower, packed and was out by 7:45 and down the street to what appeared to be a local café/bar. To my question “hay huevos?” The answer was “si”, so I had two fried eggs, bread and a café con leche. On the road by 8:15am. No arrows, but Doug has sent me a great Spanish guide so I read that day’s walk, save it as a PDF to iBooks and then, if I’m not confident of my translation, I copy and paste into google translate. I love technology when it’s on my side. So I set off, no yellow arrows, and after 5km or so stopped for another coffee as it looked like there was nothing up ahead, except my first yellow arrow. In fact, there was another café 4km further but I passed and kept walking. Shortly after this, I missed an arrow, went 2.5km, met a fence with barbed wire top, so had to turn around. Consequently a 27km day became a 32km day. I had lots of water, a bun with butter from the airplane (which seems a week ago now), a granola bar that cousin Doug gave me in November and a few almonds. That was it until the tapas at the bar tonight, but more on that later. 

Here are some pics of what the day was like for walking. First, once the sun came out at 11, I had to hang my laundry from last night. 

Interesting arrows to take me down a steep cement slope to join another path. 

The lovely path, that was the wrong path, so I walked this twice but this surface is what it was like all day. 

Another challenging arrow. 

And this dog, muzzled, was out with about 12 mates, being run behind a car, which is now at the top of the hill, waiting. He/she was more interested in me. Greyhound racing in the area I guess. 

So I arrived in town at 5pm, with no services anywhere along the way for over 20km so I was tired and hungry. I found the parochial albergue and the priest was very busy with after school activities...kids and moms all over. So he unlocked the room.  Sparse and no en-suite. 

After an hour a couple of women came by to show me the bathroom and give me a kit with soap, shampoo, toothpaste, bedsheet, towel and then they took off. Oh and the bathroom is a ways away. My room is 35 paces down the left gate and the bathroom is 35 paces down the right gate. Not too much beer tonight I think. 

So at 7, I took a wander for something to eat and saw an active bar. Good sign. I ordered two tapas (a salad one with cold sausage of some type) and a shrimp and garlic hot dish and a beer. As I pulled out a chair, a woman at the next table asked me to join them. So here we’re the two women, with two more and the priest, all just finishing their coffee. The priest and one woman left after five minutes or so and one woman got up and got herself and her mate glasses of water. They chatted away and I got the gist of it but was too busy eating to challenge a speedy conversation, but after I was finished (and one woman had returned to the table), I said, in my very best Spanish “so next year all four of you are going to walk the camino”. They were stunned that I had understood the one woman trying to talking the others into training and doing it next year. We all had a good laugh. We had a little more conversation about kids and such and then we all got up to go. I said goodbye and got an ice cream bar. When I went to the bar to pay for my meal, he said the women had paid. My jaw dropped. 

Well, the bells just rang, as they will do all night, right outside the door which has air ventilation, so I’d better try and get some sleep. 
Tomorrow on to La Cabezas, 28km unless I get lost ;-)