Once again, the Camino paralleled the highways as I headed to San Juan de Ortega, including this bridge that left Belgrado.
It was a cloudy and very windy cold morning as we passed by fields and fields of rape seed plants—used for canola oil— and grains with increasing groves of trees, both along the creeks and at the hilltops. I had earlier mistaken rapeseed plants for mustard plants.
Once i got to Villafranca Montes de Ochoa and begin climbing 300 m to the top of the hills, the scenery changed to trees and large clumps of heather. Some of the sections have been affected by wildfires and others by logging.
We passed by a memorial honoring those that died in the Spanish Civil War of 1936.
After it was mainly downhill about 8.6 km to the town of San Juan de Ortega. I checked into the monastery Albergue called San Juan de Ortega it has 60 beds in three separate rooms, The cost was €15 cash and included 2 blankets and disposable sheets and pillowcase.
The showers are nice and hot, but you had to wade through the water to get to the toilets. From where I slept, I had to go outside in the courtyard to get to the bathroom at night.
The three course Pilgrim dinner was €8 served cold so we had to microwave it. It was almost as bad as the one pot dinners before.
It appears that the Camino is a bit chiller and more windy in April and early May. I trust the sun will come out as you walk West. Good reading. I walk Bloomsday tomorrow—only 7.2 miles.
ReplyDeletehe got much rainier and muddier as well near the end of my travels on the Camino Santiago.
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