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The countryside has changed from red earth and Rioja country to miles and miles of grain fields and sunflowers. The sunflowers are amazing. They stand so tall and you can see the fields because the leaves are still so green. But the poor old things, standing 5 to 6 feet high are finished. The lovely yellow heads are past their best and they hang down like maidens at the end of the dance when their sparkle has gone.  Fields and field s of them and people have gone up and drawn faces or their initials onto the blackened flower heads. We took pictures.

That apart, the journey was one of the worst for me. I’m not sure why because it was shorter. It was exposed and so hot. There was no relenting…open endless beautiful countryside but no end. I hurt, my feet burned so much…I wanted to quit but there was nowhere…you had to carry on..the road less travelled…

Is this a cellar

I had got over my shock at the Pension I was staying in. I guess being so tired at the end of a hot and exposed walk, to have no reception or meeting point, or indeed anyone human to greet you was disconcerting. Thank God for Fiona and Paul. They are so chivalrous, they insisted on collecting me for dinner. You do meet so many people but it is transient. Everyone that passes you says, Buenas Dias, Buen Camino…..everyone,  and you smile back with a limping gait as you lean heavily on your poles. Poles? The sticks are my friends. I bought telescopic ones so I could fit them in the back pack but they hardly see the shade of my bright blue Osprey that is screwed to my back. It carries my water, and a million other things especially the sandwich you made at breakfast with a banana if your lucky. It’s funny as I don’t eat bananas at home but here…I feel like Jamie Murray or Fedorer. It’s salvation. Another discovery were rehydrating sachets. Fiona gave me a couple and mentally I could only remember the foul taste of Dioralyte when my babies were little….which they refused to drink! Now they taste pleasantly of lemon. I must find some at the pharmacy if I get chance.

Dinner was at another public hostel. We had to queue for them to open the restaurant door as you stood in a line along a shelf with everyone’s smelly walking boots. It was hysterical. Needless to say I knocked on the door….because we were hungry!!!  Lo and behold the student guy opened it up so I said,

’Oh … Te Quiero” to him…(I love you?)

I guess I’m not getting any better as a person yet. God is still trying me out I think though the Camino…its the way of the pelegrinos…(pilgrims)  we pass every church!!

At dinner, we were joined by smiling Jean Pierre and MarieAnne his wife..the ones that live on a golf course in Switzerland. I swear they fly to the next post because they are always there, they walk so fast and don’t seem to stop. Lovely tall Alain and his wife Regina sat with us too. He thinks my French is fantastic so I like him…and he loves Liverpool FC….no contest. The wine flowed which is included in your 12 euros…bottle after bottle but JP insisted on trying the Crianza…he made me laugh, he said ,

”Get this app and point it at the label, it will tell you everything…and then buy the dearest… which was 15 euros!!! ?

Then the shock came….our next stop was more than 32 Kilometers away….a long day. Yes you can start out and do 5 K in your first hour or two but ‘end of day pace and heat..and stops …make it more like 3.5K. Per hour…and you DO need to stop.

Paul, unflustered  ex military man just said we will leave at 5.45am!! They would be outside my hostel at 5.50!!….and they were!!!!!! and it was SO DARK…..I followed his head torch with Fiona along black stony paths….aaaagh!!!  How important is light?

Rioja Comunidad was full of Olive groves , vineyard after vineyard but now the terrain changes.

It is all grain fields and sunflower fields….I miss the olives.

I was prepared for this.  Unbelievable so early in the morning and you do pass the odd pilgrim darkly hidden on the roadside. How they found their way without a light is beyond me. Of course I know there is a torch on my phone but….battery and all that, I need to. Be prudent, with or without a support charger.

Paul was the beacon, it was amazing except when he turned his head to look at the side of the road, the light moved too and then we stumbled into total blackness. Out of towns and villages is not that brilliant so I was happy to wait for a stealing dawn around 7 before the sun was really up at about 7.30….At this time of year anyway. ?

Even though the road was long beyond imagination, we decided to stop every 2 hours or so and pace it. But I had left without breakfast so after an hour and 20 we stumbled on a village. All quiet…surely everyone is in bed…its still dark. We see coloured fairy lights in a garden and a sign, roughly written that said OPEN.  Of course this could have been the Spanish way…we trek round…a lighted kitchen and a man making coffee with hot Tortilla…mmmm Heaven. I laughed because the first thing we did was get our feet out and dress our toes..in the cafe!!! Something I would never do in England.  We walk on,…this time in the cool of the morning with a path that led up….and up…and up. Don’t they always!! Up and up…you pant for breathe but its beautiful Oak woodland. Scraggy poor Oaks line the path with patches of alpine heather…Spanish heather of course.

After hours, Paul happily looks around with his beaming smile and says we have done 6 hours walking and there is only another 3 to do!!! But we don’t complain…we enter Atapuerca a small small place that had a famous battle there..it was between 2 brothers, one the king of Navarre and the other the King of Castile….in 10 hundred and something…..and Atapuerca man, father of mankind…some sort of Neanderthal man…must look it up but its now a UNESCO heritage site because of that.

The village EVENTUALLY slips into view. I cant believe it…9hours and 10 minutes on the 11 th day. A tiny farmhouse with old polished wooden steps darker than the morning road and uneven so I couldn’t even climb the stairs!! Everything creaked but it was friendly and so much better than Pension Toni!!! We meet JP and Marie-anne, with Alain and Regina and Jan!!!….our Parkinson man whom we helped on the road.  We are a group. I’m savouring it because after tomorrow they stay over and I am left alone. TOTAL FEAR grips me.

This is it. My last day following lovely people. I know its a shorter day, only about 22K instead of 32 but we arrange breakfast at 7am. I don’t know why I say ‘arranged’ because the little dining room come bar is deserted. To be fair, the young man the previous night was barman, waiter, server of food and everything. I guess he needed a lie in. It was a ghost room, especially after creaking down the uneven dark wooden steps. There was breakfast alright, but it had been set out from the night before, croissant in plastic bags, orange juice in containers, flask of cold coffee???…he tried I guess. I still made the ham and cheese sandwich though. It’s staple diet here. The door was locked and the only way to get out I discovered after several stupid minutes was to press the buzzer….daaaaH!

I was out and ready for the off when I realise I had left my sticks inside!! It was deserted and the door locks behind you!! I could see someone shuffling through the window. It was Jan, the man with Parkinson’s who we had bandaged up early in the previous week.

”Jan, Jan can you get my sticks for me and pass them through the window?”….well I said it in French in desperation. Sure enough with his lovely smile, he shuffled over and passed them to me.

”You saved my life” I said…..See, I guess if you do a good turn it is always given back to you!!!

Notice the STONY path.