Viloria de Rioja

Wow, what a day.

It was a beautiful start to the day – crisp, clear and fresh as I left Santo Domingo de la Calzada. There were contrails from planes high above in the air and rolling fields of wheat in every direction.

The villages were appearing regularly and that helped the morning go quickly. I spent a bit of time walking with Bill from Brisbane, who is approaching retirement and wondering what to do with the rest of his life. I’m sure he’s going to figure it out by the time he reaches Santiago. The scenery was beautiful, and it also allowed me to spend some productive time in my head for the first time. It’s only been the last few days that I’ve started to feel that I’m getting into the rhythm of the Camino and I’m feeling very comfortable.

The villages came and went and there seemed to be a lot more pilgrims around today. Maybe it was because there were several stretches where you could see a long way ahead and the Way was populated with the colours of the backpacks of pilgrims from all over the world. I stopped at a few churches as I went along, but I’m still having trouble with the extravagance of the altars in the Spanish churches, seemingly at odds with the peasants and farmers who would have had to finance these structures in times gone by.

I finally reached Belorado and had trouble phoning my accomm, which is off the Camino path, and which was meant to be picking me up. I went to one of the stores for a drink and then the problem started to make itself clear. For some reason, there is a power outage across Spain and Portugal. It sounds serious. I found Johann and Franck, from The Netherlands and Belgium, who were sure it was a Russian intervention on the power system for Europe. They could be right! I finally made contact with Anna from our accomm and she arranged to collect me from the church in Belorado.

While waiting for my pick-up, I watched a line of pilgrims at the nearby Albergue as they queued for a bed. Leah from Germany was in the crowd and I reconnected with her after a few days of having not seen her. The ‘bed race’ from each alburgue to the next makes life difficult and I can’t see how those involved can enjoy their Camino when they’re racing to the next town just to get a bed for the night. I’m hearing stories that accomm is becoming particularly tight as we progress along The Way. Bill from earlier in the day is having his daughter and wife organise his accomm ahead of him and he told me that there is nothing available ahead for the next couple of weeks. He has to walk to San Juan tomorrow and then take a cab to Burgos in order to find something. I also ran into Lucky Sakamoto again and he had another 13kms to go to Villafranca this afternoon for his accomm. His story is the same in terms of no available accomm. It pays to have all that organised.

Anyway, we arranged our pick-up for the accomm and Anna our host was most apologetic about the situation. It happens that there are about half a dozen Aussies and Barry, an Irishman, here tonight and we all told her not to worry. Because there is no power, dinner is being prepared by Anna’s mother in her home on coals and we all couldn’t be happier. At least they had beer and a G&T that kept us happy. The place I’m staying at is off the Camino and, as we stood outside the accomm having a drink, we could look to our left and right and see the whole village, pretty much. It's going to be one of those nights, I think. As it turned out, the power was restored in time for a shower and then dinner. These are the things that happen on El Camino.

Belorado is a nice little town that is holding on to its heritage past. Along the Way out of town, there are brass plates along the road with the footprints and handprints of famous people. I know Emilio Estevez’s (Writer, Director and Producer of the movie The Way) plaque is here somewhere, but I settled for Miguel Indurain, a famous Spanish cyclist.

Today, I crossed into the province of Castille y Leon which is the largest autonomous region in Spain. I will spend quite a lot of the Camino in this region as I travel through the Burgos, Palencia and León provinces. Tomorrow, I’m off to San Juan de Ortega and only two days to Burgos.

Efren’s video of today’s walk can be found by clicking on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy9xaSSBGPY&amp…

Distance today: 23kms
Total distance travelled so far: 235kms

Buen Camino, dbRead more