Tuesday, July 16: Najera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

I walked 21.3 miles today. Today is also two weeks since I started the Camino de Santiago. Two weeks of walking over 200 km. Also it has been two weeks since I have taken an form or transportation other than my own two feet, no buses, no cars, planes or trains, not even a bike. That is pretty amazin when you think about it. When was the last time you went everywhere by only walking? For me it was in college because I didn't have a car. 

I was feeling a new gear today and did the 7km to the next town, Azofra, like it was a stroll in the park. Along the way I walked and chatted with Phillip from Denmark for a few kilometers. He stayed one bed over and one bed up from me in the albergue last night.  

I made a sandwich for breakfast and ate it in a park just outside of Azofra. I continued on and then I see Phillip coming back towards me. He had left his walking poles back in the store on town. Oops. 

The sky ahead starts to get darker. Lightning flashes and the thunder cracks through the air. When the rain starts I am 5 from Azofra behind me and 4km from Cirueña ahead of me. Nothing in between but one tree that I am not going anywhere near. I put my pack cover over my backpack and a disposable blue poncho over me and the pack (one of the 100 Tracy bought in bulk and shipped to me two years ago). 

Then Phillip is right there behind me. We walk through the rain as it turns into a deluge of a storm. The lightning streaks around us and the thunder blares in echoing booms. I was very glad not to be walking alone. There is no shelter anywhere in sight so we sludge on through the mud as our boots fill with water.  

On the ground I found a walking stick. I don't know how but right away I knew who's stick it was. I just had a hunch that it belonged to Eugenie a lady who has been chasing her son Doninic all over the camino. I have run into them several times. Anyway I took the stick with me. 

The rain starts to clear as we get in sight of the next town. The golf course there has a bar and wonderful restrooms. The orange juice is delicious and fresh squeezed. 

We ran in to Katerina and Natasha from Germany. Then I saw the Camino family again. A free spirited family from Germany. They pulled their 6 and 8 year old girl and boy out of school and are walking with a bike to their new home which is either in Seville or Morocco. 

  Mon and dad pushing the bike with all their possessions up the hill. Kids behind with ponchos and backpacks almost as big as they are. 

Natasha's pack is huge and she has a volleyball too. She and Phillip played soccer with it as they walked into town. 

I stayed at Albergue de Peregrinos de la Abadía de Nuestra Señora de la Anunciacíon for €5.  This alberge is on the convent grounds and nuns live in one of the other buildings here. 

A few hours later I looked from the door of the albergue and there is Eugenie without Dominic and without a walking stick. It was hers. She had abandoned it because of the lightning. She was glad to have it back band asked if I had seen Dominic.  I don't know how out if all the blue walking sticks I knew it was hers but it was cool I was right. 

Cool fountain

I went to the store and back before the rain came. There was a bunch of people at the albergue cooking and only two burners on the stove. I made tortellini and chicken. There was extra tortellini so I shared it with a group of South Koreans who's dinner was kind of a disaster. They were trying to make some kind of pancake with potato strips in it but it wasn't cooking, just sticking to the pan and making a big mess. 

The mattresses at the albergue here were not comfortable. And my pillow was all wrong, too hard.  But I slept with a nice cool breeze coming in the window right over my top bunk.