Calzada de Valdunciel - El Cubo 23 km

I was up and away whilst everyone else was sleeping, it was a cold morning and I wore my fleece for the first three hours of walking. The walk was ok but quite uninspiring as most of it was on a dirt track some 20 metres from the motorway on one side and endless fields of wheat on the other. It was very exposed and I was walking almost all the way against a strong headwind. I eventually took off my fleece and for the first time unpacked my Rohan waterproof jacket, which proved to be an extremely effective windbreaker.

Although it was only 23 km it felt longer against that wind and I was very happy to see the town only a few hundred metres ahead. I went to the albergue but there was no one there and so went in search of coffee. Whilst I was there two women came in and we recognised each other, from having said hello to one another on the street in Cáceres. We chatted and I asked if they knew when the albergue opened, and so one of them immediately phoned the owner, she was Spanish and had stayed in the albergue the previous night and got on well with the owner, and got the info I needed. She asked where I was from and when I said Scotland she commented that she had not met anyone else from Scotland on the Camino. I also said I had not met any other Scots on the camino, at that exact moment a voice behind me said, well there's three of us right here! I turned round and there were three cyclists who had just come in for a coffee break. They were all from Edinburgh, and not cycling the camino but were doing some other cycle route, it was great to hear a familiar accent and we chatted for ages, before they got back on the road.

I went back to the albergue to wait until it opened and found another cyclist waiting to get in, Guillermo from Spain, he lived and worked in the UK and recognised my Scottish accent immediately. He was very friendly and I liked him right away, which turned out to be a good thing as he would have a part to play in my camino adventure in the weeks ahead.

The albergue was split over three buildings and I ended up having an entire house to myself. I was really pleased to see Anita and Mirjam, they were staying in the same albergue but in a different part. Chatting with Anita we both came to the conclusion that we would love to have a day in Zamora, apparently it is a beautiful city but our walking schedule would not allow it. So, with a bit of online research, and some local knowledge, and some language assistance from Guillermo, Anita and I decided that in the morning we would get a bus into Zamora and spend the day there being tourists. Mirjam was going to walk it, she is a late starter in the mornings and very fit, so the long distances don't seem to bother her.

Most of the peregrinos met together at the albergue where the owner's wife had cooked us a fabulous dinner, the conversation was great, there was a lot of laughter and a sense of belonging. Around the table we were from Scotland, Hungary, Poland, France, Holland, Spain, Norway, Australia and Canada, but we were also all from the camino, and that was the bond that held us in the moment. Some of us were meeting for the first time, but were a band of brothers/sisters even for just that moment and it felt good to be part of that.Read more