Day 19 - to El Burgo Ranero

Again, thanks to my day and 5000 step sponsors.

Apologies for the multitude of spelling mistakes. It is very hard to type on a compact keyboard and I can't be bothered re-reading my text.

Yesterday, after my 30kms, was a very restful time. I slept; I wandered around the very small town; I spent a good hour in the fountain built especially for tired and swollen feet (heaven). There was only one other pilgrim - a 30 year old Italian lass - with the owner and two volunteer hosts - we ate a homemade pizza - delicious! - and we passed time talking about this, that and another thing.

This morning, I arose relatively late and was on the road at 7.10am. About an hour later than usual. I walked for the first part of the morning with the Italian lass from the hostel. Both the conversation and the silence were very pleasant. After the first town, which was only a short distance from where we had stayed, we were offered the opportunity of an alternative "green" route. These are always longer than the normal pigrimage route (either a little or significantly) but do not follow highways and are not constructed of bitumen. We took this green route and were accompanied for kilometres by sunflowers in full bloom. It was glorious.

Shortly before entering the city of Sahagun, we came upon the monument marking the half-way point between St Jean Pied de Port and Santiago. A smile burst onto my face. Naturally, we did the whole photo thing and ended up taking photos for a few more passing pilgrims. In Shagun, I and the Italian lass parted ways. I took the opportunity to sit for a while in a cafe and ate a delightful custard tart thing with a wonderfulk and strong double espresso. The owner of the cafe was really sweet and made sure that I got a really big tart - I think that they appreciate my attempt to politely order stuff in Spanish.

The rest of the day was miles and miles and miles of path next to a road. It was also a journey that offered only sporadic shade. It was not delightful.

After about 4kms, the path split. One could walk the Camino, the pilgrim path, or one could walk along the Via Romana, an ancient Roman trade and military route.  I needed to take the former, though the second was greener. A group of us gathered at the place where the routes diverge and pondered the correct way to go. It was not very clearly marked. After we had decided what to do, we set off. After about 3 or 4 kilometres, I started to worry that we had made a mistake. A railway bridge over our path was coming up. There was no such overpass on my map (only for the otehr route). I fretted for a while until I pulled up the mapping app on my phone and discovered, to my relief, that we were on the correct Way.

A few kilometres later, we came to the next town on the journey. This was 20kms into the day's travels.  There, I stopped for the Tortilla and a coke.  My water was almost empty. Thankfully, every town has a rest stop, before or after, with picnic tables, a bbq, and a water fountain. The rest stop prior to the town had no fountain, but indicated that 3 kms later there would be another rest stop. As it turns out, this rest stop had no water either. As a result, and not thankfully, I ran out of water. It was the hot hour between noon and 1pm, the sun was beating down on my neck and my legs, my backpack was weighing a tonne, and I had to resort to simply whetting my whistle with the water that remained in my tank. There was not even enough for an actual drink, just sips every 500 metres.

I was so glad to arrive in El Burgo Ranero. It is a hot, dry, dusty, God forsaken place. But, I have a bed, I have showered and washed my clothes, I have consumed lots more water (as well as eaten a Calyppo) and I have rested.

Thankfully, the next two days are only 19kms each. Then, I have another much needed rest day. For tomorrow, I have put an extra 1/2 litre of water in my water bladder. I have operated on my feet again. They are sore! They are swollen! They need a little rest!

When I was searching, yesterday, for information about the half way point for the Camino, I came across a blog which basically said: the WOW has gone and now I wonder why I am doing this. That's part of the journey, a certain weariness with the walk and with the routine (especially across the boring plains of Las Mesetas). I can truly say that the intentions which I carry with me - praying for my day sponsors, praying for the individuals or families at each 5000 step journey keeps me going. Obviously, I also offer up prayers for the diocese and its people, for all those entrusted to my care and for particular intentions which have come to me. The enormous space that the Way offers is easily filled with prayer - whether it be the simple prayer of "God help me" or prayer for others and their intentions. This keeps me putting one sore foot in front of another.

Hasta el luego!