 Previous Day |
Villacazar de Sirga → Ledigos 28.6 km (17.8 mi) |
 Next Day |
¡Ay, todos!
This morning dawned icily, but our little posse spilled forth into the streets well before the sun nonetheless. Today marks the first of two long stretches of emptiness, so it’s best to get those out of the way as early in the day as possible! This should be a shorter day, concluding in Ledigos, which should give me enough time to figure out how to say “Hasta luego” to my friends before they continue their blazing fast race to Santiago.
 |
Did you know that, once I arrive in Ledigos, I will have crossed the halfway point between St. Jean and Santiago? I can’t believe I’m at the midpoint already, but you know, I have been walking almost two weeks exactly. My goodness! Back in the States, two weeks pass in an instant, while here, it feels like I have spent half my life on the Camino! Time does seem to slow down in the country (I mentioned this when I visited Kingston), since there are no speeding cars or deadlines. It may also be the result of the magic of walking. Walk longer, live longer!
 |
The walk into Carrión de los Condes, so named for the Río Carrión and the counts (condes) of Castañeda, was quite short, so I arrived in town long before anything opened. Carrión, unlike its English homograph, has proven particularly resilient over the course of its long history of conquest, first by the Romans, who called the town Lacóbriga, then by the Moors, who reportedly required Christian residents to turn over 100 virgins every year, and most recently by Napoleon!
 |
During the reign of the latter, who had already ordered the burning of the town’s fields, a man named Santos Padilla arrived in Carrión, and fought Napoleon’s fire with more fire! In short, he burnt Carrión to the ground! This is called the scorched earth tactic, and it was the same that the Russians used to keep Napoleon out of their country! That helped for a while until the Carlist Wars (remember the tale of Tomás de Zumalacárregui?) brought even further destruction to the city!
 |
Despite this grand series of messes, modern Carrión has certainly rebuilt itself, so much so that I got lost! How could I get lost in such a large and rather straightforward town as this, you ask? Some prankster had installed fake arrows leading off into the trees! Isn’t that horrible? I had passed under the bridge, heading toward certain doom, when suddenly, a lady shouted to me from atop the bridge, “¡No, no, no! ¡Has perdido el Camino! ¡Está allá! ¡Date la vuelta!” Basically, “Go back and try again!”
 |
Having found my way again and passed the Monastery of San Zoilo, now a luxury hotel, I headed out onto the long stretch. Right away, I encountered a roaring fire! At first, I thought Napoleon was back, but then I realized I had already seen a lot of burnt ditches. Do you know why farmers burn ditches? The clearing of tall grasses helps control weeds, insects, and even snow that can pile up along the road! Unfortunately, that does put a lot of smoke into the air, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Spanish, it’s that they love their smoke!
The next 17.5K was the sort of deceptively flat terrain that hides towns in its pores! I was lucky to be on this stretch on a cloudy day, but my goodness, the path just kept going straight into the distance! The peregrino population suddenly quadrupled, forming an ant chain leading over the horizon! That hurt my brain as much as my feet, but not so much as when a group of laughing college guys from Barcelona skipped past me, as if they were out for an afternoon stroll! Once they passed me, I was ready to see a town and get some lunch with zumo de piña!
 |
The town of Calzadilla de la Cueza rose very slowly from the hole in which it sat, starting with the walls of the cemetery. Isn’t that ironic?! I stumbled into town amid a slew of other peregrinos and ordered a bocadillo de tortilla and glass of zumo as quickly as I could! The tortilla was runny, but I was so hungry, I decided it was sunny-side up and hoped for the best!
 |
Getting off that bar stool was even tougher than the walk itself! I had to steel—no, titanium—my resolve to get out the door of that bar. Only six more kilometers remained between my feet and no shoes. I could do it! I had to do it! An hour later, after much hobbling and the fact that Ledigos hides behind a hill, I did it! I staggered into the chilly Albergue El Palomar and found Andrew settling in, but no French faces. Jean, Andrew said, had continued the next 10K so he could meet his friend at the train station in Sahagún! Serge and Didier had joined him!
When George disappeared, part of me knew that it was his time to go. It is the Way of the Beaver to leave home at a certain age and, in all likelihood, never return. But we always say goodbye, and there is usually a ceremony. George left without a ceremony or farewell. He was just gone, and all of us were sad. That was how I felt the moment I realized three members of our Camino family had left too. For as much as I questioned my walking speed, I still thought it was still nice to have a “family” waiting in the albergue at the end of the day. Now, it is splintered, and I don’t know how that will affect the rest of the Camino. Now, there is no one to catch!
Buen Camino!
Previous Day |
Total Distance Walked: 391.4 km (236.9 mi) |
Next Day |