Villafranca- Torremejía 28km

We set off as planned and made very good time, once we were out of the town we had to use our head torches.

Unfortunately, my hat fell off my mochila, of course I didn't discover it until I actually needed to wear it once the sun was up. It was a real problem because the heat was absolutely brutal and there was zero shade for the entire walk. I ended up putting my shemagh over my head and using my head torch to keep it in place, it looked quite ridiculous but it worked. I prayed that someone would find my hat because I would not have an opportunity to buy another one until we got to Mérida.

Once it was properly daylight Keiko insisted that I walk ahead at my own pace, so we said goodbye, I knew that there were plenty of peregrinos behind us, and I was expecting her to arrive at the albergue in Torremejía, if she didn't turn up by a certain time, I would go look for her.

The walk was very tedious, long straight paths in a flat featureless landscape, you could walk for a couple of hours and feel like you hadn't gone anywhere and the heat was absolutely fierce, there was nowhere to escape it on that path and the only place to sit was in a ditch or on one of the official way marker stones. I was sitting on one of them when a Spanish cyclist came hurtling by, stopped and came back to where I was to ask me if I was ok, which was nice. In my experience most Spanish people I met really respected the fact that you were walking a camino and they wanted you to be safe and enjoy the experience.

I was very tired and glad to finally get to the outskirts of the town, the albergue I wanted to stay in was on the far side of course, and when I arrived it was closed so I called the number on the door but there was no answer. I went across the street to the café/bar and had coffee and a snack, and they said that they thought it was going to be closed all day. Knowing that there were a lot of peregrinos behind me I hurried up to the other albergue whilst there were still beds available. I got booked in and I'm glad I did, it was very nice and the hospitalero was friendly (Liverpool supporter), and the showers were great. By mid afternoon the albergue was full. It turned out he also owned the cafe bar and had a deal for the albergue and a meal. Once I had picked my bed and sorted all my stuff I went back to the café/bar for more coffee.

Just then Robert and Ana María arrived and asked me if I had lost something...they had been walking along in the darkness when the light of Robert's torch picked out my hat lying on the path and Ana María said "that's Norman's hat!" If they had been walking a foot either side on what was a wide path, they would never have seen it. Some people might say that was a coincidence but for me it was a camino miracle. In my experience most miracles are to be found in the small, ordinary things of life, we don't often see them because we are looking in the wrong place for the wrong thing, looking for something less ordinary. Once again, as would so often be the case on the camino, I went to bed thankful.Read more