Nacimiento to Abla 17km

I had a bad night in the albergue, whilst it was good to have the place to ourselves, Nacimiento was one of those towns in Spain where the church/town hall clock struck the hour, every hour 24 hours a day. It goes back to the days when people didn't have watches, or mobiles, days long gone. The constant ringing of the bell was therefore totally unnecessary, though doubtless the locals were so used to it they had stopped hearing it.

Somehow, we managed to get some sleep but we were both awake well before our alarm went off. So, we just got ready and left the albergue. The shop next door was open so we got some fruit for our snack on the way. As we got to the edge of town it quickly became clear that we would need our head-torches as it was still quite dark. It would be another 30 minutes before sunrise. When it got light we could see that the sky was overcast and it stayed that way for the rest of the walk.

The walk was good with a light breeze blowing almost the whole time, it was the first time we had walked without the sun beating down on us, and we were happy for the change. The first 8km was more or less on a dried up riverbed but it was quite hard packed with lots of tyre grooves, so the locals must use it as a road in the dry season. After a couple of hours we came to a village called Doña María and the was a cafe and wonder of wonders, it was open. So, since they had gone to the bother of being open we felt it was only right that we stop for coffee and toastada. It was good to be able to sit down and relax for 30 mins and the coffee was good.

Once we left, the walking became much more difficult as we continued on the riverbed, it had shifted from being hard packed to being a mixture of shale and pebbles and stones of all sizes. It was very uneven, and very difficult to walk on, and so it slowed us down considerably. To make matters worse, we were followed closely by a stray dog for about 6km. Dogs can be a problem on the camino, generally speaking they are either chained up or are behind a fence, and they just bark a lot. However, sometimes they are loose, but if you raise your walking pole in a threatening way they back off. This one was not aggressive but I was conscious that could change. I have had a few nasty encounters with dogs when out walking - the owners, who have obviously never heard of dog leads - always shout assurance that their lovely pet wouldn't hurt anyone, usually just before it does.

Fortunately, as we came closer to the town of Abla, we passed a house with a very big wire fence and three of the biggest most ferocious dogs I have ever seen. When they heard Ken and I approaching they attacked the fence trying to get to us barking angrily and loudly, and the stray dog that had followed us took off and we never saw it again.

We continued on towards Abla which we could see it just ahead, as we came into the outskirts we stopped at a garage for a drink and a seat. Our legs were very sore, it is hard to describe how difficult it was walking on those pebbles and stones for a couple of hours, our legs and our feet were aching.

The albergue was, of course, at the top of the highest hill in the town but we made our way there only to find that it didn't open for another couple of hours. Fortunately, the hospitalera saw us and let us in to pick our beds and leave our backpacks. We went down the hill to a cafe for coffee and some tapas, and while we were there it started to rain, but we had nowhere to go anyway.

Three o'clock is quite late for an albergue to open, it meant there was little point in doing our washing as we would not be able to get it dry. Some Spanish peregrinos arrived, and very obviously hoped that we would give up our bottom bunks for them, but it's first come first served. One of them Jorge, turned out to be a grand roncador, one of the loudest and most persistent snorers that I have ever heard. When he introduced himself he apologised about his snoring in advance. We would be hearing a lot more of Jorge over the next week!

The hospitalera was very nice and friendly and she set out breakfast for us for the next day, in return I helped her set up a new sim card on her mobile, one good turn etc.

It turned out to be a long night, Jorge wasn't kidding about being a loud snorer, and he wasn't the only one, a French lady shouted at another pilgrim to turn over and stop snoring, which, surprisingly, they did, but it didn't last. It is one of the things that you have to get used to on the camino, but I think that it might take me a while. Czytaj więcej