As I said in yesterday’s post the Hostel we stayed at in Grañón was on a donation basis we opted to do dinner there as well. There was one guy hosting us at the hostel and he was there from another part of Spain for a couple of weeks. It was a little bit like Fawlty Towers, he didn’t seem a 100% sure of what he was doing. We got settled when i was trying to have a shower the water kept stopping all together but eventually it started working and it was hot. I was freezing cold but that is because it was about 6 degrees and there was a very chilly wind blowing. I went down to have a drink with Bryce and another Aussie called Steve who was also staying at the hostel. I tried sitting out side with them but it was too cold. So i went back to the Hostel and put on some more clothes. Dinner was at 7:30pm and we went down and sat at the dinning table 3 Germans, 1 Swiss, 1 Italian, 2 Aussies, 1 Irishman, 1 Spaniard and 1 Kiwi. The guy from hostel brought out two pots for dinner and the first one was a soup which didn’t look particularly appealing it had minimal veges and was a clear broth with what looked like two minute noodles in it. But hey it was hot and we were all freezing cold and it actually tasted ok. The guy from hostel served and the plates were passed around the table. I was responsible for serving the seconds as it was now sitting in front of me. The second course was Chickpeas with black pudding and chorizo it didn’t look the best either but it tasted good and we were all pretty hungry. We did the dishes after dinner and then headed up for bed.
Bryce was in a single bed and Ray and I were in the bunk bed. Ray was on top and he is over 6 foot and weighs over a 100kg so when he got on the bunk it sat pretty low down towards me and there wasn’t a lot of room. I was slightly alarmed that upon investigation there was only 4 springs on one side of the bed and now I was slightly paranoid that Ray was going to fall on top of me in the middle of the night. But thankfully that didn’t happen. I made sure that I did some stretching and used my massage ball (Torture device) to try and loosen up my muscles. Anyway had one of the best sleeps so far, woke at 3:30 but managed to get back to sleep which has been a al challenge. My feet are coming along nicely. In the morning we scrambled to get ready to leave and get out the door just after 6:00am which has become our regular routine. I had to scramble to get my feet sorted and ready but they are looking really good. We headed off at just after 6. And you can see that the sun was just starting to rise at the end of the village. But it was was so cold it was only 3 degrees so I had my merino leggings on and long pants plus t-shirt Jersey and jacket on top and the gloves i brought with me as well It was super cold, later we would notice quite a bit of fresh snow on the foot hills around the area. We headed off to find some breakfast on the way but the fist place Redecilla del Camino which was about 3.7 kms away there was nothing open so we pushed on. The next place Casteldelgado another 1.7 kms nothing open, next town Viloria de Roja another 1.9 kms still nothing and then finally at Villamayor del Rio there was a Cafe open yes! Only 9km’s for breakfast.
Poor Ray was having a really tough time with his feet and blisters but he wasn’t alone. While my feet were getting better this morning they were hyper sensitive and it felt like I was walking on glass. I was trying to do breathing in my head to control the pain but it wasn’t working, then my calf muscle on my left leg started to cramp as well. Thankfully we were just coming into a town called Belorado at that point. So Ray and I hobbled to the pharmacy and I purchased some Paracetamol and Ibuprofen and we found a place to sit and have a drink. After a quick call to Nicola our friend in NZ who is a pharmacist to find out how much to take as the instructions weren’t that clear. Anyway thankfully after taking an Ibuprofen and some Panadol and also having a break my feet felt so much better and i was able to walk without much pain and discomfort. We pressed on as we had approximately 28kms to walk in total today.
We tried to find somewhere else to get some more food and a drink but we didn’t have a great deal of luck. We tried Villambistia but after walking around nothing was open. So we headed on to Espinosaa del Camino and there was a little albergue there with a bar. There was a collection of people already there and a very flamboyant staff member who was really over the top. People were asking for help with things but rather than finishing with one person he kept trying to talk with everyone it was painful and in the end we had something small and got on the road again for the last 3.8kms. The hostel that we are staying in tonight is called Albergue de Peregrinos San Anton Abad and there is a Hotel at the same location, the showers are great, not bunk beds! Yes! And it is really clean and tidy and only 15 euros for the night. We like it here but think we will get dinner down in the town. The Plan tomorrow is to head to Cardenuela Riopico which is about 24km. Hoping for another good sleep and then good walking tomorrow I am thinking that I will send my bag again for one more day to make sure my feet will cope. After this morning I was wondering if i would be able to finish the Camino. But after a good afternoon I am feeling way more optimistic about things. Apart from just smacking my left heal where the worst blister has been healing on the Cast Iron bed frame That hurt like crazy!
Anyway I hope you are all well , thanks for reading and I appreciate the comments and encouragement!
Nga mihi
Mike
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