CVdlP Day 16, Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Canaveral to Galisteo (17.36 miles)

Today I started at 7:45 AM, in the dark, because I wasn’t worried about getting lost as the Camino was on the main road for a few miles. It was an immediate uphill climb out of town, and I knew it was the steepest and longest of the day so I was glad that it was first thing in the morning when it was cool.

After about a mile the Camino turned off onto a dirt trail that looked rough, so I decided to stay on the road until at least reaching the peak. It was a long steady uphill grade until the top and I moved back onto the Camino near the little town of Grimaldo.

The Camino at this point was a narrow footpath, and occasionally widening to a gravel road. There were many livestock gates that had to be opened to pass through. The terrain was rolling hills, with lots of short and long steep climbs, and the surface rocky and rutted. It was very rough going at times.

The scenery was nice, especially when the Camino came near the reservoir. I saw what I though were three river otters. I also saw several deer with fawns, the first deer I had seen on the Camino.

It was an uneventful day with the usual temperatures reaching the typical mid nineties afternoon.

Today was the first day since I started the Plata that I felt my walking rhythm all day. Even though it got hot in the afternoon I never hit that wall that I had been feeling with the heat in the afternoon. It might have been because of what I saw when I reached the last peak and I could see Galisteo in the distance. It was as though I was in a completely different place as I looked down into the valley. Everything had been pretty brown and dry, and the valley and hills to Galisteo were lush and green. When I got to the bottom of first the hill there was a stream and tall shade trees everywhere.

Seeing the change probably gave me that extra push because even the last few steep hills before Galisteo didn’t seem bad.

The city look story book from a distance and even more so as I got closer. It looked like a huge castle wall on top of a hill, with little white houses on the slope below.

I found the albergue as soon as I entered the town. There were two other pilgrims there. Paul, a French Canadian, and Wolfgang, 75, from Germany. Both men have done several Caminos. I really enjoyed meeting Wolfgang and enjoyed seeing him still going strong at his age. He was walking as much as he could every day and plans on taking a cab part of the way tomorrow.

I had a chance to wander into town and found that the main part of town is within the old city fortress walls built hundreds of years ago. The house on the outside, including the albergue, ate only a small part of the town. Inside the walls are the real city, probably the way it was hundreds of years ago.

Houses are built right up against the fortress walls, which are probably twenty feet thick. There are several churches, town plaza, stores, restaurants, and of course houses inside the walls.

I found narrow and steep steps leading to the top of the wall and I walked around most of the city from up there looking down. There were funnels in the wall that looked like places that were used to pour hot oil on any attacking enemy. Slots for shooting arrows without exposing the shooter. Just amazing to imagine what it was like hundreds of years ago. What a great find Galisteo was!

I got here about 3:30, and was able to have enough time to explore the city. Again, the restaurants in this small town don’t open until 8:30-9:00 PM, so I put something together to eat from the mercado next door.

Tomorrow is another one of those days where there is a small town with an albergue within 16 miles and the next town after that another 15 miles. So, it looks like I may have a short day tomorrow. I’ll see how it goes.
As always, please excuse the typos, spelling, etc., as this is typed on my phone and generally not reviewed.

Best wishes,

Ted

Leaving before sunrise