Gérgal

The fiesta in Alboloduy went on until about 4am but in the end I slept surprisingly well, and woke up feeling refreshed. So, I was up dressed and very well before the alarm, and well before Ken.

Our plan was to walk the main road rather than the camino path, which had a ridiculously steep ascent about halfway. It was, I think, the right choice but that is not to say that it was easy. We walked very steadily uphill for just over 5 km, and although I think that was considerably easier than doing the hill climb, it did sap our energy somewhat.

Eventually, near the top of the mountain, we saw where the hill climb came out into the road. Just up ahead, we saw Helen and Jaap, they are about half our age and had left about 20 minutes before us only carrying small day packs. The fact that we almost caught up with them was testimony to the fact that we are incredibly fit for our age...or maybe that taking the road was the best choice.

Eventually we came to the point where we would have to make a decision to continue on the road which would mean extra 5 km on the walk today or we could return to the hiking the camino trail down the mountain.

We sat down on a very uncomfortable rock beside the road for some water and fruit and decided to go via the camino path as it looked quite wide and wasn't too uneven. As we set off, we had only gone a few metres when we saw a covered shelter with picnic tables and benches...if only we had looked around!

The path down the mountain was wide and flat but quite steep in places, and so it zig-zagged its way down to the valley floor. The further we went, the less steep it got, and it seemed like in no time at all, we were at the bottom of the mountain.

Needless to say, waiting for us there was another dried up river bed, but it was unlike the others we had been on. It was much more hard packed and easier to walk on. It wasn't ideal, but the only way was forward, and so forward we went. It is one of the lessons that the camino teaches you. You have to live with your choices. We very rarely get the chance to redo or indeed to undo the choices we have made.

The river bed was hard going, but mainly because of the heat. We were very glad to get into Nacimiento, we stopped at the bar and discovered that the bar owner also ran the albergue, and so before going into the albergue we had some drinks and tapas which was great. Once we got in, due to his advanced years, Ken immediately went for a nap, though not before banging his head several times on the bunk bed. I went for my shower to discover that the choice available was cold water or very cold water. I also discovered that there was no electricity.

I roused Ken to go speak to the owner, as I thought the conversation would require more than my camino level Spanish. It was an easy fix, it turned out that he had forgotten to turn the power on, I guess not too many peregrinos stay here.

I suggested to Ken that we move our stuff to the room at the back of the albergue as by this time it was clear that the front room would be noisy due to its proximity to the bar. The room at the back of the albergue also had a single bed in it so Ken wouldn't keep banging his head off a top bunk!

We went for coffee and were surprised to be offered the menu, normally the kitchens don't open between 3pm and 8pm. I think they actually opened so that Ken and I could get some dinner.

The forecast for tomorrow is that it is to be very hot so we agreed to leave early, and we also expect similar terrain to today as we had yesterday. With nothing else to do in Nacimiento we went back to the albergue, packed our rucksacks and went to bed.Read more