Just over 16km today. that’s almost a day off. Except for the 250m climb out and a steep 250m descent dividing the day in half.

I slept in today. Well not really. I woke to my neighbor’s snoring around 0500hrs this morning. Woke up to street noise at 0600 and then just putzed around for a while. I ended up leaving at 0900 and rolled in to La Magdalena at 1300.

The route was nice the best part I think was from about 10km-14km. Nice shaded overgrown farm track that ended up being a nice single track path.

Again, the season is perfect in this area – springtime brings emerald greens, a cacophony of colors if you will, with the wildflower blooms, young calves and foals and soft but not muddy trails.

Today wasn’t a real good day for pictures (hazy valley and flies kept me moving) so not many were taken.

One thing I noticed, even though this was a short day, it doesn’t matter how long of a day you have, the last two kilometers are so tiring. Arrival at the cafe/bar is always accompanied by sore feet.

The next several stages are difficult ones. Not for distance or terrain, but for Camino infrastructure. What I have read and what I have been told is that I will have to carry food for the next 2-3 days. There are places to eat on the way and some stores, but if they are not hit at the right time, you’re out of luck.

I have called ahead three days now and verified the albergues are open and “reserved” a bed by giving them my name – not that they wrote it down. Later tonight I will go to the grocery store and find the right food for BLD for a few days. I have to balance volume, weight, ease of preparation, etc. (even though they just rolled a keg of beer into the pub and however much I’d like to take it, that is just not an option).

There are seven etapas left on the Camino Olvidado until it hits the Camino Frances. I have three of those days dialed in. We will see what happens after that.

Talking to an Australian pilgrim last night – she said her friend is currently ”touring” the Camino Frances. The word is that due to the pandemic, not all albergues have reopened and are charging double what they did pre-pandemic. Not only that but due to the scarcity of beds, pilgrims are reserving beds three and four days in advance. I hope that’s not the case – I don’t like having an agenda on the Camino. But if it ends up being that way, well… it really doesn’t matter. The Camino is and the Camino provides.

Like I said, I didn’t take a lot of pictures…