An interesting day. Accommodation hell if you will…
Today was to be just under 30km along the east and north side of a reservoir and then along a river. Sort of…
Today was 29.5km of shadeless asphalt/concrete and hard packed farm track. I started out an hour early after getting a refreshing down day in Aguilar. Headed towards the dam and then up and over, not to cross it. Then through pastures, pastures, more pastures. 18km to the first pit stop – only drinks, no food. Good thing I brought some pinchos I bought to go the day before…. The Camino only took me next to the resevoir for about 2km, and then a forest was between the trail and the resevoir, so viewing opportunities were limited.
At about 5km in, the trail veered towards a necropolis and more tombs, all facing east to see the sun rise.
At 18km, after a pit stop and a KAZLimon, the trail crossed a river and generally followed it for 12km to Cervera. This river has a very healthy population of trout. I saw probably a hundred or so varying in size from 12”-18”. Made me wish I had a pole.
I was hoping for some shade on those sections but that was not to be. The trail went through pastures and towns and some birch forests, but the leaves were thin and the shade they created did not fall on the trail when I passed through. I think my arms and neck are a bit red, although I wouldn’t say burned.
Once I got to Cervera at about 1430hrs, I started looking for a pace to stay. There are about a half dozen or so places to stay – and they were all shuttered during the hora de siesta. So I headed to the town square and had a beer.
I took this opportunity to try and figure out why my phone stopped working – alas – it still doesn’t work. My OrangeES and AT&T SIMs don’t work at all, only my eSIM works. Apple wants to point the finger at OrangeES, but with two different SIM cards not working, it’s likely the phone – of which I won’t be able to resolve until I get home. In the diagnostic process, I had to reset my phone so everything is all messed up on it.
Once people finished their siestas, they started to come back to the bar. I started calling around for lodging in Cervera. ALL of the hotels were full and the Albergue didn’t answer the door nor phone calls, nor WhatsApp messages.
By this time, it was about 1800hrs and with no lodging, I started looking at how to get to the next stage: either Guardo – 40km or Tarilonte – 20km. Neither of them had lodging. Something is up – the whole area was booked for the entire week. The nearest lodging I could get was in Cistierna – a whole four etapas and 77km away. The train was at 1900hrs and 3km away – no way I was going to rush there with a pack on and two beers. So I called a cab…
I should say that the bartender called the cab and he told her that I needed to go to Aguilar!!! That’s back 30km the way I came. D’Oh! Well, I went for a ride. Good thing it was a shared cab and we made it to the correct station with plenty of time.
The summary is that there were beautiful parts to todays Camino but I wish there was more shade and I wonder what’s going on that there was no lodging available for 77km…. I’m disappointed I will miss several etapas, but there really was no way around it without lodging. This will however allow me more flexibility on the end – I will now have plenty of time to extend the Camino from Santiago to Finesterre/Muxia. I’ve been to both places before, but I haven’t walked them. We will see – that’s still a good 3-4 weeks from now and things might change.
Now for some pics…
Pizote Adventures 