Zamora to Montamarta

I set off a little later than I had intended, but it's only about 20 km so there is no great rush, and there are plenty of beds in the municipal albergue. The walk was quite pleasant, it was not too hot and most of it was on hard packed gravel through lovely countryside.

I had walked up the long hill out of Zamora and had turned onto the gravel path where the camino cuts across the countryside, and i hadn't gone far when i stopped and took my rucksack off the get my sunglasses, as I was walking directly into the sunlight. As I was doing that I looked back the direction I had come and saw in the distance another hiker, and as I wasn't in a hurry so I thought that I would wait for them to catch up. It didn't take him too long, his name was Jonathan, a geography teacher from Texas, he had decided to do a seven day camino from Zamora. Unfortunately, he had done the very thing I had warned the other pilgrims about last night in the albergue, namely that at the top of the hill out of the city there is a local camino that goes to Portugal and it is easy to get on the wrong path...which is what he did. Once he realised his mistake, he retraced his steps and saw me in the distance and assumed that I was walking the Via de la Plata.

I helped him to download the Gronze app and showed him how to navigate it so that he would not get lost, and said he was welcome to walk with me, as I knew the way. So, for the first time since saying goodbye to Ken, I was walking with a camino companion. We stopped for coffee and some food in a little village on the way.

Marion had decided to spend an extra day in Zamora, so there was a good chance I would not see her again. When we arrived at the albergue in Montamarta (marginally cleaner than two years ago) we met a Serbian woman called Svetlana, she was an interesting character, she would offer you some food and say quite forcefully, "I give you this, you take it, you enjoy, we be friends." She had walked the camino Levant from Valencia, and had not met another pilgrim for 35 days. Other folk started to arrive, including Christoph from France, he only spoke French, and he had also walked the Levant, though he had not met Svetlana.

As I had been there before, I showed them all where the shop was and the restaurant where we all went for dinner.

It had been a fairly uneventful day but I had enjoyed the walk, Jonathan was a good companion on the road, and we found plenty to chat about. I spent some time reading but then it was lights out (normally 10pm) and a walk tomorrow that I nearly collapsed on last time, so time for sleep.Read more