Birthday on the Camino.
Yesterday we arranged to meet with Malcolm and Michelle McPhee from Anacortes. Malcolm and I go way back, like 1971, when we were both camp counselors at Camp Sheppard, leading hikes and climbs near Mt. Rainier. We haven’t gotten together for a few years, but when comparing spring schedules a couple months ago we discovered we would both be in central Spain, near the town of Burgos, on the 18th of May. He and Michelle riding their bikes from south to north on a bike tour, us walking east to west on the Camino. They arrived in Burgos on the 17th and had a rest day on the 18th, today. We are hiking 17 miles from Belorado to Agés. They suggested they would take a taxi to meet us, maybe walk a bit of the Camino, then have lunch. Searching the map, we found that if they met us in San Juan de Ortega we could walk the final 2.5 miles into Agés together. That meant we would hike 14 miles from Belarado to San Juan de Ortega, meet them and hike the rest. Sally and I didn’t want to be wasted for our visit after a 17 mile trek. We decided to take a taxi from Belarado to Villafranca Montes de Ora, about 7 miles of the day, then walk 7 leisurely miles to San Juan de Ortega to meet up with Malcolm and Michelle.
Our taxi picked us up at 7:00am outside the albergue we abandoned last night. We left Tom’s room about 6:25am, so we had time to enjoy breakfast in the town plaza, bundled in our puffy coats to stay warm. The trees have been meticulously managed for decades. They have grown together and interlaced so that by mid summer they form a continuous canopy. Very cool.
Our taxi arrived at 7:00 on the dot. 20 minutes later we were exiting the taxi in Villafranca. We taped Sally’s feet with KT tape in a little park at the trail head, then started up the route. We climbed 600’ in the first two miles, then it was level and down hill all the way to San Juan except for one 150’ steep drop and climb up of a little ravine.
About 3 miles from San Juan we found trail magic, a guy selling bananas, eggs, soda and such with big band renditions of Nirvana, Eagles and Sound Garden songs playing from his portable speakers. Annoyingly entertaining.
We got to San Juan about 11:00am, found the only coffee shop open, each had a soda and wrote blog reports and postcards while seated inside trying to stay warm. There was a stiff breeze blowing outside with a temperature of about 48°.
Malcom and I were both using WhatsApp live location to rendezvous. As 1:00pm approached I saw Malcolm move out of Burgos headed our way.
We had moved outside, freeing up a needed table inside and were there to greet Malcolm and Michelle when they drove up.
It was great to see them both! We sat at the picnic table for 10 minutes or so, phoned Becky and found she was still a mile or two away. We left, knowing her speedy walking would carry her to us.
We had a nice 2.5 mile stroll to Agés, I talking with Malcolm the whole way, Sally with Michelle.
In Agés we checked into the albergue, M & M joining us upstairs in our bunk room, seeing for themselves albergue life.
We had a great lunch/dinner four doors down at the restaurant. We had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. The husband wife team running the place were a scream, especially when she explained our choice was “pollo” or pork (here she wrinkled up her nose and snorted like a pig rather than say the Spanish word for pork).
With dinner done, Malcolm called for a taxi. While we waited the 15 minutes for it to arrive we strolled up to the church to inspect the stork nests on its bell towers.
The cab appeared to be running late until the clerk at the albergue told us it was here, but on the other side of the building.
Sally and I snuck into the dining room with it’s uncomfortable benches and watched the latest Ted Lasso episode, agreed it was great and then spent some time attempting to book accommodations further up the route before calling it a night.
Back in the sleeping room, we propped a window slightly open to keep the room from getting stuffy from the six of us sleeping inside. If the window flipped all the way open it might have gotten too cold in the room so we wedged it with one of my sandals to be open just a crack. I was asleep by 9:45pm.
Town Plaza in Belarado
Trees going together for shade
Our abandoned albergue where we picked up the cab
Monument to the massacre of over 300 people at the start of the Spanish Civil war
Cafe where we waited for M & M
The big dippy-doo once up on top above Villafranca
Stork nest on bell tower of church in Agés
Immediately above are all the photos I took of Malcolm and Michelle’s visit - none. Malcolm took this one.
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