Stage 10

How lovely to leave a bit later after sipping our coffee and eating pastries by the river.

Except that’s not what happened.

Despite what the sign had proclaimed the night before — Open at 6 am! Coffee! Pastries! — the bar was locked and dark at 6:15. Insult to injury was the steady, consistent, seemingly-never-ending climb out of town. Fortunately the first town was only around 3.5 miles away, and I had a protein bar leftover from the day before. I was sulky but not hungry.

When we stopped for coffee Tom and Yvonne were there. Turns out they had hung out in the area we had and had stayed in the apartment right across the hall from us last night, but we never once saw them in that small town. Mim and Kathy came along just as we were leaving, so we got a Borda group shot. One of the crew, an American ex-pat living in Madrid, went home a few days ago due to the heat. Can’t say I blame her when it’s that easy. I think when the heat breaks, (supposedly in a few days) she plans to come back.

Today’s walk, though shorter, is more what I expected yesterday to be — lots of open areas, repetitive views, not much breeze.

There were only two towns along the route, and we stopped in both. Before the second town was a full golf club. Very random in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. About half mile later was the tiny Camino town we expected.

We were done by noon, sitting under an umbrella on a terrace having lunch waiting for check in time. Because we’d had a big lunch, we just grabbed a few things at the grocery store for dinner and snacks to have in our packs tomorrow. We walked around town a bit in the blazing heat before retreating to our room. Once it cooled down we went back out for some drinks.

I have a massage booked for tomorrow in Belorado. Smart to advertise in this town so there’s time to make an appointment. My muscles seem to have adapted but my ankles and hips still haven’t accepted their fate.Læs mere