Onto Astroga .. last stage of the Meseta

I was in the Albergue in San Martin and woke up and packed my bag for Jaco trans. Jaco trans is a luggage transportation service that will transport your bag every day. You can reserve way In Advance your pre planned locations or do day to day. We do day today because we are not sure where we will end up. I have a back pack that I carry and a small carry on luggage. The carry on is what I send to the next town that I think I can walk to.

I get envelops and put 6 euro in them and attach the envelope to my bag and drop it in hallway/lobby of pension, albergue or hotel.

I left San Martin a.k.a. garden city/hawthorne.

I’m walking and walking ..

Hmmm large trucks driving by..

Is this gonna be the same as yesterday? I laughed and said to myself probably!

I started singing to myself…….and played my kazoo to entertain me……

I walked and walked and it already felt like too long and forever.

I finally came up on a town called hospital de Órbigo

This is where the old Roman bridge is at. It was a neat little town. The bridge was impressive with its length. The stones in the road were maintained and you could see all the grooves and definitely imagine the Romans coming through.

I moved on to the next town and as I was walking by what looked kind of like a garage an old man was sitting at a desk. He waved me to come inside and said “Sello”. That means stamp. He had a custom stamp for my Pilgrim passport. I said ok. He asked if I wanted an orange or slice of cold pizza I said no.

I asked if he was selling anything. He said no.

I saw his garage walls were lined with pictures and post cards from around the world. He asked me where I was from and I said Savannah Ga. Y California USA.

He walked me around his entire garage showing me every postcard he had been given from visiting pilgrims for USA. Then he showed me the rest of post cards from various countries.

Then he opened a backdoor and it opened up to his back yard. He had a cherry tree and he picked cherries and gave them to me and in Spanish wishes me well and Buen Camino. Then he show me his old shed. I walked in with him and he had a pork leg on the holder and cut me a piece of Jamon to eat. Showed me his pizza stove and then showed me his other room with a bed and old cast iron stove.

He showed me his garden with apples.🍏

It was awesome we gave each other hugs and he told me to be on my way. Once more he said Buen Camino!

It was such a nice human experience. I was energized. Even with the monotonous hot walk, I was good to go!!!!

Let’s do this Trina Brown!!!

I kept walking and had been walking for 4 hours now.

It was hot and I hadn’t seen anyone in a long while. The trail started to go back to the farm land. I saw. A tree and went to stand under the tree for shade and as I approached the tree a woman said hello ! I was startled.

I said “oh I didn’t see you sitting there in plain sight under this tree”. I introduced myself and the woman told me her name was Penny and she was from Canada. She told me she had walked the Camino several times,

She said she would walk with me if that was ok and warned me she was slow. She explained she was slow because she is sick.

She shared with me she has various ailments. She is terminal. She said she Won’t be around much longer. When she received her recent diagnosis she gave her husband one days notice and said “I need to walk the Camino again while I have a chance. “
She bought a plane ticket and arrived without notice to walk the Camino one last time.
She has walked the Camino several times.

We walked and talked for a bit and then she told me there will be an oasis ahead.

I said what?

Then she stopped and bent down and said here have this. It was a small rock in the shape of heart. She said she likes finding heart shaped rocks and giving them away. I told her thank you!

As we rounded the corner on the dirt farm fields.

There was a pilgrim rest area with services!

It was a wild bohemian vibe. Very hippie.

People laying in hammocks.

A huge round table with various foods.

A meditation stone circle walking patch Shaded benches.

I grabbed some watermelon slices and gave a small donation.

We sat there for awhile. Penny told me to go ahead and walk on. She needed more rest.

I said, ok and off I went.

I kept walking and walking it was a 25 km day. The sky started getting dark and lighting and thunder began to appear.

I could see the city in the horizon. I did my best to hustle forward.

I eventually made it to Astorga.

Amy booked a lovely place to stay. It had a nice courtyard. We had pizza and red wine for dinner.もっと詳しく