Montamarta to Granja

We set off at 0630, everyone was either already gone or getting ready to go. I had only walked about 1 km when I realised that I had left my hat, so I turned back whilst Jonathan waited for me, but I had only gone a few hundred metres when Svetlana appeared with my hat.

The walk was nice enough, if a little bit dull, although there were some nice views we were mostly walking on gravel paths that sort of ran along main roads, and through fields. It was the first time on this camino that I had walked as part of a group, albeit a spread out group, everyone has to walk at their own pace. When we stopped for a break, I had a closer look at the map and realised that there were a couple fo shortcuts we could take and Jonathan was happy to go with that. So we took a slight detour along an old road, it took 2-3 km off the stage. We arrived in Granja within 5 hours of leaving Montamarta and a couple of breaks along the way, one of which was in a cafe! It was a very different experience from last time, when I arrived my legs were like jelly, I struggled to walk from the albergue to the bar where we had to register and pay. I was not tired at all this time. To be fair my pack is about 4 kilos lighter and fits properly.

Like so many of the albergues I had stayed in the one in Granja hadn't changed a bit, but it is a decent albergue, the showers/toilets are ok and the room upstairs is brighter and cleaner than downstairs.

Tomorrow we leave the Via de la Plata and join the Camino Sanabrés, it is a long walk to Tabara, I remember last time Mirjam kept messaging me to encourage me as I was very unsure about the distance. She was very excited to hear I had made it, and we went for drinks as soon as she arrived. It was also in Tabara, that she introduced me to Meg and Kathleen, Anne, and Julia, and it was from that day that we became a group. It changed everything. So I have fond memories of Tabara, though I wondered what it would be like. Just a few weeks after I got home from the camino in 2022, the town was evacuated due to a forest fire.Read more