Day 17, Hornillos to Castrojeriz

I hardly dare say it, but we continue to be incredibly lucky weather-wise. We walked today’s 22km in pretty perfect conditions - cool, dry until the last 20 minutes and with a mixture of cloud and sun that made for fascinating and constantly changing skies. I’m scared to say this too, but so far I’ve loved the Meseta. Like yesterday, we stopped a lot to photograph vast skies, layers of colour and abundant hedgerows.
Travelling with Fiona has made me more aware of birdsong, Before we went to sleep last night we heard a nightingale sing; this morning we woke up to a cuckoo. We hear cuckoos almost every day - I’m not sure I’ve heard one at home more then a couple times ever.
We bumped into Sheryl and Janice from Canada at Hontanas (pop 73) where we stopped for coffee about halfway through today’s walk. I really liked our stop at the 14th century Church of the Immaculate Conception there - once again I was moved and Fiona and I both lit a candle.
We walked on to the evocative and stupidly photogenic ruins of Monasterio de San Anton. It had once been a hospital for people suffering from ‘St Antony’s fire’ an illness caused by eating infected flour. Apparently the order of San Anton was set up to cure this illness across Europe - and the treatment they offered good food and wine. All in all, my sort of medieval hospital! Built into the ruins of the monastery is a tiny donativo albergue which offers accommodation to 12 pilgrims overnight. There were two beds left and we would have taken them if we hadn’t already committed to a place 3km down the road in Castrojeriz. Fiona has pledged to return and stay at San Anton. We walked on another 3 or 4 km and it began to rain lightly just as we entered Castrojeriz, our destination today. Our hostel turned out to be more than a kilometre away at the far end of the town. This did not feel like good news at the end of our walk but where we are staying is nice and quite upmarket for us - and besides, it means a slighter shorter walk tomorrow when we are set to do 25km.Read more