Yesterday was not a happy start! Some inconsiderate so and so got up and left the room and the phone behind with the alarm on which went off at 4.30 am! Lots of unhappiness among the 30 odd people woken up. Luckily it stopped after 5 minutes. I went back to sleep then woke up to many getting up so I joined them only to find it was 5 am. What the heck; I may as well walk. They had inexplicably turned the lights out at 9 the night before so I'd had plenty of sleep.
Walking in the predawn is gorgeous and even though there was hazy cloud there was enough light to walk without a torch. The sun didn't start to rise until 7.30 and the first birdsong was 7.40. I had been the only person with English as a first language among the 40 or so in the albergue last night so I'm walking alone today again and loving it.
About 8.30 I took some more photos of the amazing Hospital de Orbigo and got a memory full message - disaster! I won't be able to take phtots for the rest of the day at least. I sent my card reader ahead thinking that the camera would connect strait to the tablet but I was wrong. I'm hoping there is a camera shop at Astorga so I can get another. The problem is today is Sunday and little is open in Spain except cafe/restaurant/bars (all one thing here).
Hospital de Orbigo has the most amazing bridge and below on the floodplain are the lists for medieval jousts! Apparently they had tournaments here long after they died out elsewhere and they still reenact them. I'd love to see it.
I walk on, rejoicing because my feet feel pretty good, for a few more kilometres until I reach Villares de Orbigo where I am met by a fellow talking Spanish at me who takes me by the arm and heads me into town. I'm a bit taken aback until I grasp that they are having a fiesta for St James and the pilgrims are invited I am taken to a private house where trestle tables full of food are laid out and other pilgrims are eating. I'm given hot chocolate and the home owner takes my pack for me. Everyone is excited that they have an Australian here and, as always, amazed that I have come so far. The owner asks me have I brought the whole of Australia in my pack and I told him Australians are tough with muscles. I thought it was funny but everyone nodded! He also showed me the garden and the layout of the house. When I was leaving he said his heart was bleeding for me putting on such a heavy pack - very pretty but I cursed him for kilometres as my pack, which I was quite used to, weighed heavy for once. The power of the mind.
The rest of the town was setting up for a market but I couldn't stay. I forgot to metion that while I was sitting and chatting there was an explosion. I nearly jumped right out of my chair but the house owner laughed and said that it was the celebration. When there is a fiesta, they ´bomb´; a baptism, they bomb; a party, they bomb; etc. I refrained from asking about the sleeping habits of babies in the village.
The remainder of the day was across country. It was the first chilly day with the clouds clearing but the crisp wind blowing sharply. I played cat and mouse with a French trio of two women and a man of about my age. The women talked non stop and sounded as if they were instructing him on how the world should be. Every time I stopped for a break they eould stop nearby so I would start again. I didn't get to rest my feet enough so my blisters got really sore plus I had hit the left one against a stone as well. I now had bleeding into the tissues around the blister as well just to add to the fun. The last few km probably took me 1.5 hours.
On the way in many people stopped to say Buen Camino and to encourage me. At the last village before Astorga an old man was sitting out by the road , obviously to chat with passers. He nearly fell off the seat when he heard I was from Australis. He told me it was just 'un poco tres km' ( a small three km) to the albergue. Very kind.
I got there evntually thanks to a fellow pilgrim who grabbed my sticks and towed me up the last hill!
The albergue was enormous and I fluked a four bed room with only women. No modesty issues - if I have any left.
I eventually found a cafe that night where I had dinner and two beers. Then I asked to pay but the fellow was watching a basketball game between Spain and France and just gave me another beer! So I just drank it before going back to the albergue and sleeping well all night. Today I am stopping to shop at the farmacia and other spots and will see at lunch time whether I am up to walking or not.
Buen Camino.
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