Sunday, 15 October 2017
San Nicholas del Real Camino to Reliegos
39 km today - 445 km on Camino Frances – 1,190 km from Le Puy - 339 to Santiago
Today activity starts about 06h. And as my intention is for a long day I am up with the first mover. I am underway just before 07h. I am back on the road as I don’t trust my feet on the pebbly and slightly uneven paths. This is the N-120 again. This road started way back in Logrono and, where convenient, it is the preferred road as it has wide shoulders in open country.
First stop is Sahagun, about 7 km don the road, for a Danish, cafe Americano and Zumo de Naranaja Natural. As I pass out through the town I hear the bell calling the faithful and I keep going.
For the rest of the day I am on a sealed country road with very little happening. The whole region is flat and so is the road. The principal features are road bridges being lifted up over the two high speed rail lines. Yes, two, one to my left and one to my right, each about 500 metres or so away. And part of the road bridges are for the A-231, a major arterial road between Burgos and Leon not far away to my right: I can often see trucks and cars scudding along in either direction.
After Sahagun there are only two stops. Berciamos del Real Camino is 10 km on and a good place for a late morning break. And a near new cafe has pride of place on entering the town and offers me a slice of newly cooked tortilla along with the usual.
El Burgo Ranero comes up a further 8 km on and makes for a lunch break. On approaching the village I notice a tall tower with a peaked cover and ladders almost to the top and think fire station, the tower being to hang hoses to dry. On the way out of town I look back and see a cross on top of the tower and a bell under the peaked cover. On the ground is a (relatively) squat building with an arched roof. Now I am thinking church. If so this is likely to be one of the more recent churches in this part of Spain serving a catchment of not many people.
On the final 13 km stretch for the day I encounter irrigators. I have seen these on the Canterbury plan as a line that trundles along the length of a field trailed by a hose attached to a supply point somewhere and so cover a rectangular area. While those I encounter today look the same in outline there is one major difference: they are tethered at one end to what looks like a water bore head and so would water all or part of a circular area.
Reliegos comes up. At the entrance to the village is a modern albergue and a Canadian couple from Vancouver are heading into the town. There are at least four bunk rooms and only one with pilgrims stuff in it. No one else about I so I continue on. The next albergue seems to be an add on to a restaurant / bar and the cook, who also seems to double up as receptionist, and I have trouble communicating, even with the help of a translator on my tablet. In the end it seems I could have a room to myself for E 30. I decide to keep looking and find another near new albergue, but in an older style. The staff are helpful and I wash some smalls to dry overnight. They are either merino or synthetics, so that is not a problem
I forget what I had to eat. Possibly the rolled oats / porridge that was cooked for me in San Nicholas the night before.
And so to bed
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