Chuck's News: May 23, 2023 - Day 23 - to Frómista - 16.0 miles - +1104’

Longer day today called for a earlier start. Up and out of the Rosalie Albergue by 6:00am. The sky was a solid sheet of overcast. We were out before the sun even lit the sky, so headlamps lit the way for the first few minutes. The wind was busy and the air coolish, so fleece and piggies were on and necessary. The route today is miserly flat except for a 500’ climb steeply over a ridge two miles in. We were nearly alone on the trail to start, just two people in front of us and no one behind, but as we climbed the ridge we could see back all the way to Castrojarez and saw about a dozen people strung out on the trail following us.

The wind shelter on top was a welcome site. We stopped for a few minutes along with a sweet South Korean woman. About a half mile on top and then a 400’ very steep descent into the flat plains filled with wheat, barley and poppies.

Our first town was at about six miles and we stopped in for a cup of tea for Sally. She was counting people passing us this morning, just for fun. When we pulled into the cafe she was at about 65. When we left (she was watching out the windows) she was close to 80. We got to talking to Simon, an Australian while in the the cafe, so her numbers became a bit shaky.

Another six miles up over a gently sloping ridge and down ito the next town. Here we stopped for lunch in a park on the outskirts of town, eating the bread, cheese, Coke and potato ships we had been carrying. We took our shoes off and layed in the grass with our feet up on the concrete park bench to give them a good rest. Tom, Nicki and Lori stopped by to say hi as we reclined, then continued into town looking for a cafe to eat at.

We packed up and wandered through town noticing that nothing was open. Sally was in dire need of a potty stop, but nothing presented itself so she hid behind some bales of hay. We found Tom and Nicki eating some food on the ground in a cut field just off the road. We now had another 3-+ miles to Frómista. Tom and I walked together. He described his construction background and how he had built 50 story buildings, shopping malls and - very cool, was awarded the contract to build 40 acres of flooring to cover the infield of a horse track for the pope’s visit to Australia. And - Boom - just like that the miles were done and we were in Frómista.

We followed directions from Apple Maps to get to our Albergue. The owner/operator was a pleasant man from the Netherlands. He had painted much of the art in his office and got excited about a portrait of ——- who was responsible for helping Hemmingway come to fame as an author. Eventually he showed us to our bunks-me on top again.

Sally and Becky walked to a pastry shop while checking out the venue for a gathering of Camino walkers in a restaurant organized in WhatsApp. They called and I joined them although I was not feeling well. We walked to the grocery store. On the way we saw a cafe advertising pizza. We had already texted Soma about joining us for pizza, now we knew where it would happen.

We met at 5:30pm. The waitress was exceedingly grumpy. We ordered pizzas, then watched here remove two frozen pizzas from her freezer and stuff them

In an oven. They were on our table 10 minutes later. Ahhhhh. Fresh pizza.

I think I was dehydrated today, the cause of my discomfort. It is nearly impossible to pee when walking because you are surrounded constantly by people so my solution was not to drink anything, thereby negating the need to pee. After drinking nearly two liters of liquids (propel and a caffeine free sugar free Coke) and resting for an hour I began to feel better. I’ll have to devise a better plan for hydration management tomorrow. 😀

We were in room with 4 bunk beds adjacent to a small room with another two. It was amazingly quiet all night, until 5:30am when people started sneaking out to get an early start. Our coming day to Carrion de Los Condos was only 12 miles. We slept in to 6, planning to start walking at 7. It was another great day.