El Burgo Ranero to Arcahueja, 29km

Very (very!) little of interest to report in terms of today’s walking. I would estimate 98% was spent on the boring snoring sendas and the rest in passing through a few nondescript villages. Oh, and two rather nice bridges. That’s it. In camino terms, but of a ho hum days walking. 

Luckily though, the social side of things is going strong. It’s funny (or not really) how the quality of the albergue is really judged by who you get to hang out with for the evening. Last nights digs were fairly basic, but I really landed on my feet in terms of my housemates for the night – a group of very boisterous, but remarkably generous Italians including two chefs who used the very basic kitchen facilities to cook up what was possibly my best meal of the camino so far.  To describe it as spaghetti with tomato sauce doesn’t do it justice, nor does it even come close to capturing the celebratory air they managed to create around our long trestle table as we passed the wine around and were ‘force fed’ second helpings by the lovely Teresa. 

All going well until a couple of the guys decided to light the woodburner in the main room.  Pretty clear from the word go that they had no idea what they were doing, but there was a fair amount of machismo going down, so it wasn’t for me to jump in and give direction.  Until, of course, one of the guys lathered the already smouldering fire with a splash of gasoline, and then despite several cries of ‘nooooo’ reached in there to spark it up with his cigarette lighter.  Cue major fireball, instant hair removal and a miracle the guy isn’t in a hospital somewhere with third degree burns! 

My other – very different paced – new friend from last night is Peter, a 60 year old Icelandic sheep farmer who is doing the camino on a mountain bike. Have to admit, I wasn’t overly keen to chat with him at first, but as the only person in the albergue who could actually converse with him in somewhat broken English (his, not mine) I ended up feeling bad and having a chat with him. 

Of course he turned out to be the most interesting guy in the room – his farm in Iceland actually has a couple of enormous ice falls in winter and has become a bit of a Mecca for ice climbers all over the world. He actually had never heard of the camino until a group of Spanish climbers came to visit him and couldn’t climb because it was too warm.  They spent the whole week talking about the camino, and despite never having left Iceland before – or ridden a bike in about 20 years – he decided this was the thing for him. And have to say he is loving it so much, his excitement is completely contagious. Poor form on my behalf for not wanting to make the effort to chat! 

Anyway, though the walk has been quite boring today, there have been plenty of path side chitchat – Peter riding by in his sheeps wool cardi just before sunrise, various Italians swinging past to relive last night’s escapades, Canadian John popping up for a couple of hours tandem walking and an unexpected reunion with the still-delightful Amelie. Fun times indeed. 

On another positive note, I am hesitant to tempt fate and say that I have turned a corner with my feet.  But I will say that for the first time in recent history, my boots went on without complaint this morning. Whether it was my lavishly fabric softened socks or the TLC I have been lavishing on both Lefty and Righty (my two newest besties), today took our relationship to a whole new level … we are all still slightly tentative with each other, but here’s hoping today is a sign of good things to come.