Day 19 - The long walk

We left our hotel at 7.30am saying goodbye to our luggage and hoping we would see it again at the end of the day. The receptionist at the hotel wished us our first " buen camino" which is the standard greeting to "pilgrims" on the Camino de Santiago (or "Way of St James" in English.) However, we are pretty sure that St James didn't catch the 8am bus from León to La Virgen del Camino. The basillica at La Virgen del Camino was quite different to most of the churches we'd seen in Europe, it was opened in 1961 and has an unusually modern feel.

After getting off the bus we had the choice of two routes to our destination Hospital de Orbigo, the shorter route following the highway or the longer countryside way. We chose the latter because we thought it would be more interesting. We started off OK, following a gravel path and as we came across peregrinos like us we exchanged "buen caminos". There was even a man on a bike with his lame dog in a trailer at the back. The dog was incredibly vocal, howling all the way, which we hope was a sign of enjoyment but we couldn't be sure. Our first stop was after an hour or so of walking at a small village called Oncina de la Valdoncina where we had a welcome coffee and toast before resuming our walk. So far so good.

At the next village we came across instead of following the signs to the eating places we sat on a bench and had a drink, still feeling pretty good. We didn't bother to top up our water bottles, so of course we found ourselves on a long straight road in 30 degree heat with no shade and nothing much to see except corn fields and a few peregrinos. We eventually came to a corner with shade where a group were sitting on the ground enjoying a break, so we wished them "buen camino" and pushed on. We rounded the corner to find another long straight stretch with no shade..... 

We finally came to the small quiet village of San Martin del Camino where we sat down for a drink with some others who had stopped. We had been advised not to spend the night there, we had booked our accommodation at the next village an hour away.

As we reached our 30km mark for the day we crossed the old Roman bridge into the village of Hospital de Orbigo (in this case Hospital means "a place to stay"). After a rest and a shower we headed out for dinner, K was so exhausted and dehydrated she couldn't take advantage of the €10 three course meal and headed back to the hotel while mumbling: "I don't think I'll be walking tomorrow".