Autumn

We took off at a reasonable time this morning and didn’t notice the first 7 or 8 kms because we were chatting so much. I didn’t take many photos as the scenery was much the same, but the track we were walking on was much softer (gravel and sandy soil most of the time) so it was a pleasant walk. They are building tracks for the high speed rail, so the Camino has been altered a little. We followed the traditional route, which took us along the edge of the work and skirted the town for about 4 kms, only to bump into Tino, (the only other pilgrim we ever see), wandering up the road. He had left town about 15 minutes earlier and just followed the road😜!!!!!  

I was feeling pretty rough today, bursting out in temperature sweats and having trouble breathing  because of my cold, but managed to walk about 24 kms. 

We climbed over a couple of mountains, and the only unusual thing that happened today was that we came across some farmers sitting in the middle of the track, talking loudly. They had proper chairs, a bottle of wine and lunch (a BBQ). They asked us to join them but we declined and kept walking. We thought to ourselves how threatening we would have found this if we were walking on our own. We have only seen one other pilgrim in the last two days and that is Tino. He is Spanish and lives near Santiago. 

As we came down from the mountains, the Autumn colours began to take over.  The wind gusted a few times and the yellow and orange leaves floated around us, and I couldn’t stop taking photos then.  

We passed through a couple of villages today and crossed a river, but we didn’t have any extraordinary adventures and there is nothing much to write about. We are now in Santa Marta de Tera, and have just had a personal tour of the Romanesque church. It houses the oldest known statue of St James as a pilgrim! Who would have thought you could find something so precious in a tiny country town like this!

The municipal albergue is ultra modern and we are the only girls here, so we have a dorm and bathroom to ourselves which is great! Tino and another guy who just arrived, have the other dorm. I would hate to be doing this Camino on my own. The Sanabrese is so isolated and there are no pilgrims around!