September 18, 2018
- Route: Calzadilla de la Cueza to Reliegos
- Distance: 52.7 kilometers (32.67 miles)
When I woke up this morning I was already thinking about León. At only 75 kilometers away, and it’s the next major Spanish city I’ll encounter on this hike. At the rate I’m moving, I should arrive there in just two days. And just a little beyond that, I’ll be in Astorga and completely finished with meseta.
I find I’m actually appreciating the stillness and quiet of this often-maligned stretch of the Camino. It produces on the same sensation I get when I’m out for a longer training run. Instead of boredom, I feel “in the zone” and full of creativity. As obscure thoughts pop into my mind, I have the time to ponder and puzzle over them for as long as I want. That’s one of the reasons I like long distance hiking in general.
Of course, one of the downsides of this spartan section of the Camino is far fewer people seem to be around. I haven’t seen Marco (the diminutive Italian guy) or my Hungarian acquaintance (with the lopsided haircut) since for days. I wonder if they are ahead of me, lagging behind, or skipping the meseta entirely. It’s pretty hard to gauge where people are out here.
I’m not entirely alone though. I’ve been keeping pace with a tall man in his 50s named Tomas. He has the sinewy build of an ultrarunner and hails from Slovakia. Lucky for me, he speaks fairly good English, since I don’t know a single word of his native tongue. We aren’t walking the meseta together per se, but we tend to leapfrog past each other often throughout the day. And with so few people out here, it’s awfully nice to see a familiar face here and there.
Learning about Frogs
One of the towns I stopped today was named Terradillos de los Templarios (or Templar Frogs). This seemed like a really strange name for a town. I wondered if it was named after a frog species native to this region of Spain. While I was enjoying a cup coffee, I jumped on the wifi to rustle up a photo so I’d know what these frogs looked like. Perhaps I’d see one while I was walking today.
Of course, I quickly learned there weren’t any special frogs nearby. It was a reference to the medieval Knights Templar. This organization of warriors helped protect Christian pilgrims as they traversed across Europe on various pilgrimages. A templar frog isn’t an amphibian, but rather to the accessory these knights wore. Their standard uniform was a long white tunic emblazoned with a Maltese-styled red cross, and they knights would cinch their tunics at the waist with a long leather belt. The frog was essentially a leather loop that slid onto the belt, which allowed a him to carry his sword securely at his side. I’m not sure why you’d name a town after this accessory, but there you go! Mystery solved.
During my research, I also learned the Knights Templar were credited with organizing the first banking system in Europe. Many medieval pilgrims didn’t want to walk great distances across Europe or the Holy Land with all their wealth. Carrying coins was not only heavy, but it made pilgrims an target for rogue bandits along their journey. To resolve this concern, the Knights Templar set up a banking system that allowed pilgrims to deposit their money in one location and withdraw it, as needed, or when they reached their destination.
Discovering these little nuggets of history is one my favorite aspects of hiking a cultural trail like the Camino. You might not get as many picturesque vistas or wildlife encounters as would on a typical wilderness trek, but it really awakens your intellectual interests. I had very little knowledge about medieval history before this journey and now I feel like I’m soaking it in around every corner. But…I’m still a little disappointed I won’t see any special frogs today.
Halfway Point?
After the town of Terradillos de los Templarios, the Camino paralleled a nearby highway for many miles before crossing it near the Ermita de la Virgen del Puente. Just beyond this historical monastery is an arch claiming to mark the geographical center of the Camino Frances between the Spanish border and Santiago de Compostela.
As one would expect though, the marker isn’t in an accurate location of the halfway point because the Camino’s route has meandered and changed through the years. Nonetheless, there was a small park near the monastery with plenty of shade trees (a luxury on this stretch of the Camino), So, it was worth the stop to take a short break and rest my hot, tired feet and celebrate making it half way to Santiago.
Too Early to Stop
After this brief respite, I it was time to focus on getting to Berncianos del Real Camino. This small hamlet was ideally situated as a place to end the day because it would break my push into León into two fairly equal days of about 38 kilometers each.
On my way, I noticed the first true sign of autumn’s arrival as I walked beside a small grove of apple trees. The apples were so ripe, I could smell their sweetness and the aroma made my stomach grumble. Perhaps the infamous “hiker hunger” was setting after nearly two weeks on the Camino.
It didn’t take long to find a small cafe in town and order a late lunch to douse the grumbling in my stomach. And as I sat there devouring my meal, I noted that it was still fairly early. I was making such good time walking on all this flat terrain that I’d arrived at my destination a full hour earlier than I’d expected. My legs easily had at least another 5-10 kilometers of energy left if I wanted to push on. Perhaps I could walk a just little further today.
Pondering my options, I pulled out my phone and started searching my Camino app to see if there were any other towns close by. Things are definitely more spread out in the meseta, with some 15-20 kilometer stretches between towns. But I was in luck. My guide showed there was another small town less than 8 kilometers away. I could totally walk that short distance this afternoon! Plus, if I knocked out a few extra miles now, tomorrow’s walk into León would be that much shorter, giving me more time to explore the city sights! Decision made. It was time to head off.
A big, big mistake
My walk to the next town of El Burgo Ranero was fairly easy, but by the time I arrived, the late afternoon heat was really beating down. My ears felt like they were on fire from the excessive exposure to the sun, and I was really hoping to find a pool at the albergue, just like the one I stayed at yesterday. There were only two albergues in town, so it was time to find out!
When I arrived at the first albergue, I found a line of pilgrims resting in the shade on a wooden bench. The proprietor was taking his mid-afternoon siesta and was expected back sometime around 4:30 pm according to pair of Dutch pilgrims nearby. I asked them if the place was full yet, and they claimed there were only two bunks left. I could see from the group ahead of me that there were already 4 people vying for those precious bunks. There was no point in waiting there when there clearly wasn’t going to be room.
I grabbed my pack and started off toward the other albergue in town when I ran into Tomas. He looked even more hot and tired than me, and his shoulders fell sharply when I gave him the news about the first albergue. We set out through town toward the other albergue together, but when we arrived, we encountered with a large sandwich board outside the door which read, “COMPLETO.” This albergue was full too! Crap!
I asked some nearby locals if there were any other places to stay in this tiny little town, and one man reported there was a small hotel rural that rented out rooms, but he wouldn’t recommend them because they were having bedbug issues.
That news didn’t leave me with many options. The last town was 7.8 kilometer back, and I’ll be damned if I was going to spend two more hours backtracking the same distance I’d just covered this afternoon. Tomas pulled out his paper map guide and we hovered over it to see where the next town ahead of us was located.
Unfortunately, the next closest town was still another 13.5 kilometers (8.4 miles) away. It was already close to 4 pm and and I was feeling far too beat to even consider that proposition. I’d already walked a VERY full day. What a crappy situation. No bunks, and nothing even close by. My lunchtime ambition to make some extra miles seemed to have gotten the better of me.
Put on your big girl panties
A few nights ago I met two French guys who told me thy ended up in a similar situation at the beginning of their Camino journey. They began walking in central France near where they lived, and mistakenly took a wrong turn. When they finally realized they were lost, it was nearly dark, and the closest Camino town was well over 10 kilometers away. Too tired to keep walking, and worried they would get even more lost in the dark, they called a taxi and rode back to town instead.
As I pondered my situation, I wondered if that solution would work for me too. Maybe I could take a taxi to another town, stay the night, and then return here in the morning to pick up where I left off. But, where would I even begin to locate an available hotel?
As I was pondering this conundrum, Tomas folded up his map and walked over to the nearby water fountain to fill up his bottles. Then he suddenly whipped out his walking poles with a flourish and started power-walking out of town toward the next destination. Holy crap! He was going to try to walk it!
That small gesture was enough to inspire me too. I’d already walked 24 miles today and was bone-tired. But if Tomas could do it, so could I! It was time to put on my big girl panties and get to walking!!!
Dry as a desert
As I headed out of town, I quickly glanced over at the water fountain. I only had about half liter of water left and so it was probably worth taking a little extra time to top off. But then I remembered the map Tomas and I just looked at. There were multiple parks along the route. Surely there would be water spigots at some of them. Why bother carrying the extra weight of all that water when I could just fill up along the route?
So instead of taking the time to fill my bottles, I gathered my energy and went after Tomas. He was making good time and walking really fast, and it wasn’t long before he was completely out of my line of sight. I sipped some of my water hesitantly, knowing I might need to ration it. Then put in my earbuds, cranked up the most motivating playlist of songs on my iPhone, and set off.
When I came to the first park, I was nearly out of water. I looked around for somewhere to fill my water bottles up, but there didn’t seem to be any fountains or spigots. That was odd. There was a tall white plaster statue of the Virgin Mary and several nice looking picnic benches, but no water. I wasted several minutes looking around in vain, but still no luck. I guess I’d have to keep walking.
The second park was even smaller than the first (though it still had it’s own requisite Virgin Mary statue). Still no water to be seen. By now I was really thirsty. The sun was still beating down. My neck and ears felt like they were on fire, and mouth was so dry. I pulled a piece of hard candy out of one of my pack’s hip pocket pouches in hopes that sucking on it would activate my saliva glands and create moisture in my parched month. This gesture wouldn’t rehydrate me, but at least my tongue wouldn’t feel like a giant cotton ball. I sucked on that candy as slow as humanly possible to make it last. But it disappeared all too soon.
I soon passed a third park, which was honestly more like a grass patch beside the dirt road than anything resembling a recreational park. And once again, no water. Oh for crying out loud! I’m so dang thirsty. Why didn’t I top off at the water spigot back in town like Tomas? Am I going to have to walk this final 13.5 kilometers in this brutal heat without any water?
I don’t remember too much about the final six kilometers leading into Reliegos. I passed a total of five parks along the route and not a SINGLE one had water. Each time I’d approach one, my spirits would rise, then come crashing back down again when I realized that I had to keep walking with nothing to quench my increasing dehydration.
I was so incredibly thirsty that I probably would have lapped up any water source I came across. I wasn’t in any position to be picky – an irrigation ditch, a stream of scummy gutter water, a dog bowl – it didn’t really matter. I just needed to make to a water source before I collapsed. My mantra was simply: Put one foot in front of the other and repeat.
At last I could see the outskirts of Religious. I’d make it there intact, though somewhat worse for the wear. And that’s when I had a stunning realization. I just walked 53 kilometers! Today’s journey was the equivalent of a running a full marathon (42km)…plus a 10k just for kicks! Holy moly! Does this mean I’m crazy enough to be an ultramarathoner?? And if so, where’s the aid tent so I can get some water already?
