Reliegos

We didn´t sleep as long as we expected. At 5 am in Sahagun it was middle afternoon in Dunedin, so I woke, and txted my son Nick in Sydney to see if he could help me with a connection problem I was having. He could. So we caught up on family news, had an undieticianally correct 3 euro breakfast, repacked and set out at 8 am for our leisurely first day´s target of El Burgo Ranero 18km away.

The halfway marker of the Camino Frances in Sahagun. This is where we left the Camino in 2009.

It was a beautiful morning. There was a cool breeze behind us, a clear blue sky and golden fields stretching to the horizon in every direction. We walked out of the old town and across the Meseta. Each section of the Camino is looked after by a local voluntary committee and this one had done their work well. The track is senda, and young plane trees line it all the way, providing some shade but not as much as they will in a decade´s rime.

We stopped for sandwiches and coffee at Bercianos Real Camino and were in El Burgo Ranero at midday.

We were both as fresh as daisies, perhaps even fresher. It´s only another 13 km to Reliegos, so we thought walking there would be a pleasant way to spend the early afternoon. Doing that would mean the leg from Sahagun to Leon would take only two days instead of the intended 3, and given the choice, a day off in Leon sounded a better deal than another day in the sun trudging the Meseta.

We´re here, but all things considered, 31 km in the sun with monotonously level and firm track underfoot was probably not the best call for our first day. The bit of track leading here passes no towns, no fountains, no forests; just flat farmland with the occasional mud brick barn or house, and the white senda track and the small green trees in a line going on forever.We both have proto blisters, nothing to worry about yet, but we´ll need to be careful tomorrow. We got here about 3.30 at about the limit of our reserves, found the Alberge, chose bunks, showered, washed today´s clothes and put on tomorrow´s. Clemency is asleep on her bunk and I´m downstairs with a coin in the slot computer.

Reliegos is another of those practical little Spanish farming towns which simply has no equivalent in New Zealand. There is an ancient church, flat streets, houses with windows designed to keep out the sun, no shops as we would recognise them but they´re there if you look hard enough. There are old brick kilns which people have turned into very Hobbit-like homes. There are several bars and cafes catering to peregrinos. It is full of character, it is clean and tidy, but it is not really pretty. We are, however, very very glad to be here.