Jhola! Buen Camino

Jhola, buen Camino!  Hello, good Camino, we have said those words a hundred times today as we pass perigrinos and they pass us.  The Camino is becomming busier the closer we get to Santiago.  People of many nationalities are walking and now there are many Spanish who do sections of the walk each year.

We have started to book our hotel accommodation two nights in advance due to the high number of walkers and the limited accommodation available in the small towns. For this we use a variety of means.  First we attempt to book a room ourselves by mobile phone or Skype, and occasionally we are successful. Sometimes the mobile phone does not have access so we revert to Skype.  Sometimes when we finally get through to the required hotel, no-one speaks English.  Even with our limited Spanish of days and dates it becomes impossible. We then revert to the goodness of the management of the hotel we are staying in to phone for us and book the room for the next day.  Often they speak very little English as well so we are never really certain if the booking has actually been made, although it has always worked out up to now. The Spanish people have been wonderfully hospital for the most part, so we just have blind faith and it has all worked out fine so far.

We've had two days of really great walking.  The first day out of Hospital de Orbigo was through woodlands and wildflowers, with poppies and lavender growing in abundance on the road verges. We finally climbed out of the Meseta and the track wound its way up and over gentle inclines before descending into the lovely town of Astorga.  The magnificient cathederal with twin bell towers could be seen towering above all other buildings from several kilometres away.

In Astorga we met up with our Aussie mates from Townsville, they had booked into the same hotel as us, and we enjoyed a great evening meal together (and some vino tinto) in the town plaza.

Today the walk was even better as the bitumen road out of town gave way to a gravel road and before long turned into a good gravel track.  Yesterday we walked towards the snow capped mountains, but today we walked between them.  For the last two mornings we have set out early, at dawn, around 6:30 am, and walked for several kilometres before eating breakfast in the first village we came across.  Although cold, we soon warm up as the sun rises behind us.  This morning was particularly lovely as a full moon was still visable in the dawn sky.

Breakfast usually consists of a slice of tortilla, an egg and potato quiche type of dish (very tasty, but it does get boring) coffee for Steve, fresh squeezed orange juice for me, accompanied by a few slices of the ever present but delicious sliced barguette type bread.  Very occassionally we are able to get an omlette, but not often, so even though breakfast is tasty and nourishing, we have been eating almost the same thing for a month.

Today we walked 22km, gently climbing all the way to Robanal del Camino, a lovely hillside village with a population of 50.  The town however can accommodate up to 200 pilgrims in various forms of accommodation, ranging from the church run alburgues to an up market hotel.  This town would not survive without the patronage of the pilgrims on their way to Santiago.