Day 20: To Terradillos de Los Templarios

I left the monastery about 7:20 this morning and surprisingly almost immediately ran across a restaurant that was open. So, I sat down a bit for breakfast. Really, it was just bread and coffee because I knew I had about an 18-mile day ahead. Then I headed out of town past a nice tribute to the pilgrims and an old Roman road headed off somewhere. (They don’t build them like that anymore…) I then continued my trek through the Meseta.
Pretty soon I was out of town and beginning a 17k segment that is stated in the guidebooks that is often without any services. No water, no food, no toilets, nada. Fortunately, it was a flat, easy (if long) walk past grain pastures etc. After a few kilometers there actually was a nice Guardia Civil officer parked in case anyone needed help and a little further there was a pavilion that fortunately was open. It made for a great rest and refresh place. I ran into a couple of members of my more recent pilgrim family (Collin from Austin and Kelly from Atlanta). Of course, I had to photograph some of the beautiful wildflowers along the way as well as the creative rock work from previous pilgrims. As I walked the final hour or so towards my final stop of the day thunderstorms were building around me and the temperature dropped. The cool was nice, but the thunder was a little disconcerting (my metal hiking poles and I were the tallest objects around…), although, the darker sky’s did make for some nice photos. I made it to my albergue “Jacques de Molay” before the rain hit. After dinner it wasn’t too many hours before I was tucked into my bunk to write this and then off to sleep.Lue lisää