Day 22 Hornillos del Camino to Castrojeriz

This morning I was the first to wake up, climbed down from my bunk bed and headed out to the loo. By the time I got back the whole world was up in our little dorm except the few with ear plugs. I used mine last night as a choir of snorers was the order of the day or should I say night. I munched on three muesli bars before packing. One bar could never touch sides when you on the Camino. I could just see my friend Lynette laughing herself sick watching me in action. As I would say I want to "FF" permanently, the short version for "Find Food".

I set off this morning at 7:30am, extremely early in my mind. It helps that sunrise is relatively early. I took things really slowly as I was simply not in the mood as my fuel supplies were low.  I managed 10.8km's to Hontanas and managed to find an Albergue that had a restaurant connected to it. I bought the biggest tortilla sandwich I could find and a double espresso.

It was decision time, do I stay or go. I really liked Hontanas with a grand population of 80.

It's a classic pilgrim village in the meseta. The parish church dominates the village like most of the pilgrim villages. I was very impressed by all the work being done to preserve the architecture in this town.

It's one of those towns you want to visit and spend the night, the problem for me was the time. It was 10:30am, so I carried on.

Then I met up with guy from Canada, we got into some serious discussions about life. He was diagnosed with cancer that required a bone marrow transplant. It's been an ongoing battle for more than 10years. I was thinking of a very special friend back home while we were chatting.

The Camino is giving me what I need when I need it. Take nothing for granted in this life, we do not have the luxury of time, start living right now.

After the discussions I was blown away arriving at the San Antón ruins.

The road runs under St. Anthony's archway with recessed alcoves where bread was left for pilgrims. These days people leave messages for one another. It really felt special just being there, I could feel the energy.

After 19km's of walking I arrived at Castrojeriz Iglesia Santa María and checked in directly opposite at El Manzano. A private room and bathroom was required after the previous evening fighting bed bugs and other germs. 

I had a lovely hot shower and headed off to the town in search of wifi. After 1.5km's of walking I found a pub. I loaded yesterday's blog story and enjoyed an espresso. After about an hour I met Doug and Jane. They were trying to find El Manzano. They phoned and the owner came to collect them, I hitched a ride back, saved me another unnecessary 1.5km's of walking back. Clearly I do not need more exercise.

As we were driving along I saw Laura walking into town, the Camino family is all around. I just love it, a moment in time. The strangest thing occurred to me, I had not been in a vehicle since the 30th of April, it almost felt  claustrophobic. 

I need to simplify my life further. I am learning these valuable lessons even more now. 

This evening I had zero energy to walk 1.5km's into town to find food and then walk back. I settled for a massive ham cheese sandwich and an ice-cream. (See pic)

What really interested me was the gathering at the table next to me.

Three Spanish ladies were playing a board game in the pub around 7ish. It was lovely to see how a board game brought such happiness between them. The laughter, joking and screaming at times.  We played these games as kids and now we don't, I wonder why. 

What a wonderful day this was.

It's bed time for me  at 21:00 and the sun is still up.

Over and out.