Day 10, Santo Domingo De La Calzada to Belorado

Wednesday June 12

What a difference a day makes. After the brutal stabbing to my blister last night, things seemed to have settled down.

I wasn't very keen on breakfast, which didn't seem to include the normal food groups (no cereal, no hot eggs). It may have been the red wine overdose last night, but I contented myself with a bit of tortilla, a small roll, a piece of cheese and some ham, coffee and fruit juice and was on the road before 8am

I was minding my own business when I got into conversation with one of the only two men in the 13-strong Irish group. He was great at conversation and we had a probing discussion on the meaning of life and why you would walk the Camino (seriously). His wife is a super-walker, who strides off at high speed, then waits for him from time to time.

Soon after we parted, I stopped at about 10km for a coffee at Redecilla del Camino. Would you believe there were a couple of blokes there having a hearty breakfast with a bottle of beer.

Turned out that was my only stop for the day. I stripped off my thermal layer as the chill had eased and strode off.

Along the way I seemed to be a bit isolated, so I put on an entertaining audio book - Good Omens by Terry Pratchitt, which my brother Philip would probably enjoy. British humour with some quite funny references (which I seemed to get - horrors).

I was interrupted by the Australians, Frank and Karen, who I thought I'd met at breakfast in Najera. But no - turned out we'd all checked in at the same time in St Jean Pied de Port more than a week ago. What's more, they're in the same hotel tonight, so I should at least meet them again at breakfast. This hotel doesn't do dinner, but has booked me in to a restaurant across town.

I'd finished the book, when I was caught by a familiar face.

It was Alejandro, a Spanish pilgrim I'd had dinner with at the end of day one, in Roncesvalles. It's funny how you meet people, leave them behind, then meet them again days later. Alejandro was looking a bit tired, but was determined to get some distance up and planned to walk another 5k or so.







We were both pretty tired, so didn't talk much, but kept each other company for more than an hour.
I'm always on the watch for a bit of nature. I had the chance for nice photos of a lovely butterfly which settled in front of me several times and also a small snake.


 
I noticed also that the small red poppies had given way to a larger, lilac version, which was very pretty.

 

My hotel in Belorado is very nice. There only seems to be six rooms. I'm tucked up in the attic.

There's a wee nook half a flight of stairs up, which I fancy as a good reading spot.

 And here's the view from my window.
Although the hotel doesn't do dinner, they've booked me somewhere, so I'll be off out in a couple of hours.

Here's a link to today's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5KKdjjsbuMGLZap58