Santa Marta - Rionegro del Puente 27 km

As usual I set off early after breakfast of a banana, Luis and Delphine left at the same time, but they were going a much further distance today and were taking the road rather than the camino. We said our goodbyes, I probably will never see them again but I will never forget them.

It was very dark but the path was fairly flat and well signposted, As I walked through the woods I could hear shotgun blasts away to one side and getting closer, I was glad when the path veered away. At different points the camino does go through hunting ranges. Earlier this year a 24 yr old peregrina was shot and killed on the Camino Frances, I didn't want to be mistaken for game in the dark.

I stopped at Villar de Farfon at an albergue run by two missionaries from South Africa whose mission was to share the gospel with passing peregrinos. They were very nice and provided facilities for peregrinos to make tea or coffee and have a rest. After chatting with them for a while I pressed on to Rionegro.

The albergue was quite large but the downstairs dorm was very cramped as they had squeezed in too many sets of bunk beds. The room upstairs was much better, so I laid some of my stuff out on the beds and messaged Meg and the ladies to say I had 'reserved' beds for them. The toilets and showers were not great, there was no hot water, and the lights in the toilets didn't work, but other then that it was ok.

The next person to arrive was the bearded Spaniard and then the French couple whom I had met and who had a Google Translate conversation with Aurelio in El Real de la Jara. They would be with us over the next week, and we got to know them a bit better, they were lovely, both of them were in their 70's but they were fit as anything.

Meg and the others began to arrive and we went to the much recommended restaurant across the road, the food was several levels above anything we had eaten so far on the camino, the chef was very good and obviously cared about his craft. Anne and Mirjam arrived and joined us which was lovely as always, we were just missing Anita and Julia.

Apart from an excellent restaurant, Rionegro has nothing really to recommend it, and having eaten and bought provisions at the "shop" up the street, there was nothing to do but go to bed, which we did.Read more