Riolobos

I was up early after a bad night, the other peregrinos were very noisy through the night. The general rule is that its lights out at 10pm and everyone goes to sleep, but most of the folk in my room were chatting and watching stuff on their phones, I think they might have been a bit annoyed when I got up at 1030 and turned the lights out - sometimes there's no point in being subtle. I was up at 0520 and out the door by 0540 in pitch darkness.

The walk was difficult at first because almost as soon as I left the town there was a steep hill but the ground cover was loose shale so it was hard going. At various points the path went in different directions with no yellow arrows or way markers to guide you. I would definitely have gotten lost (even in daylight) without Kelly's GPS route to follow. The path got even steeper further up but then levelled off and wound its way through wooded farmland that looked nice in the dawning light. I was on my own but that was ok I was really enjoying the walk. I did meet one guy (Dutch I think) on the path he was going very slowly, he never heard me coming and when I said buenos dias he just about jumped out of his shirt. I found out later he was walking slowly because of painful blisters.

I stopped at the point where the path divided left to Riolobos or straight ahead for Galisteo, and had my banana and magdalene cake, it was a feast. Although it was only 23 km I was quite tired and glad to walk into Riolobos, the albergue, Camping las Catalinas was on the far side of the town but it didn't take long to get there. I was overjoyed to see my room, it was a unit with two bedrooms and a shared lounge and bathroom/shower. I had a double bed with a CEILING FAN that actually worked, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Rita was in the other bedroom and it was good to meet her again and chat about our plans for the next few days.

The food was excellent, and as I had stopped at a shop for supplies on the way in I didn't really need to go anywhere, so I had a restful day, and went to sleep feeling that it had been, in every way, a good day.Read more