Coca to Alcazaren (18.9 miles / 30.43 kms)

Today was a long day that was both one of my best physically and mentally, and then challenging too. I made the mistake of enjoying the albergue house and taking my time leaving this morning to sit and eat breakfast as though I was at home. I didn’t leave until after nine and with a long day it always catches up with me.

Fortunately the painter showed up just as I was getting ready to leave and I had planned to walk on the main road that the albergue was on. Just by chance I asked him if he thought it was a good alternative to walking the Camino and he immediately said no because it was a very busy highway. He told me to go by way of a back country road that had little traffic and it added about five miles to Alcazaren.

I encountered some traffic for the first half mile going out of town until I turned north onto the country road which was nicely paved and narrow, and no center painted line.

There was so little traffic that I only saw one car every ten to fifteen minutes. It was fairly flat and I could see cars coming more that a half mile away and I felt safe. The road started in the forest and then came out into gently rolling hills of farm fields as far as you could see. Somebody could find it a boring sight, but with the beauty of the rolling green hill, cool weather, and scattered cloud cover, I found it picturesque and an ideal place to walk. I felt like I had the whole road to myself.

I came to several little farm town with no restaurants or stores, but always with a large church with a steeple that you could see from miles away. The sound of church bells in the middle of nowhere seems fairly typical of Spain. To me, whether you are religious or not, is a beautiful sound to hear as you are walking in the rolling hills and yet can’t even see a building or church anywhere in sight.

I was having one of my best days both physically and mentally. It was the first night since getting to Spain that I had a good nights sleep. Part of the lack of not sleeping well is the nine hour time difference I still have not adjusted to. Almost every day I felt tired fairly early and I know it was because my body was still in a different time zone. I found myself hungry and having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and then sleepy and tired early in the day.

After about three hours of walking the clouds cleared and the temperature suddenly went up to the eighties. I started wishing it would cool down again, and within a half hour clouds rolled back in and it started to rain lightly. I got my wish. It hadn’t rained more than ten minutes when a small dump truck pulled next to me and the driver probably thinking I was getting wet asked if I wanted a ride. No gracias. Nice to know there are kind people all over the world.

My walk was uneventful until I came to the town of Olmedo, where I had to move onto Highway 610, which is a major two lane road. It was heavy with traffic, especially truck. I went from this beautiful quiet country road to this busy major highway. It was a shock. Fortunately there was a dirt frontage road that ran next to the highway most of the way so I was able to get off the highway in many places. When I did have to move back onto the highway the shoulder was eight to ten feet wide and I felt fairly safe.

I made it to Alcazarens about 4:30 and much later than I wanted. I found the albergue as soon as I went into town, and to my surprise Alan and Kim were there. There was also another couple from Belgium, she having been born in the Netherlands. Funny that with pilgrims from all over the world on the Caminos I can speak with both these couples in their native language since I speak Dutch, and of course English.

Within ten or fifteen minutes of getting here it started to rain buckets, along with lightning and loud and close thunder. I must be blessed or lucky because I made it here just in time. After a quick shower and washing my clothes we were all going to have dinner together but had to wait for the rain to stop, which it never did. We ended up putting on our rain gear and went to a nice little bar and had a good inexpensive meal. Dinners with fellow pilgrims are always fun and usually end with lots of toast to new friendships. It’s all part of the Camino experience.

All of us are planning to stay at the same albergue tomorrow, which is about fifteen miles from here. The weather forecast is for rain on and off tomorrow. We will all put on our rain gear and go rain or shine.

As always, please excuse the typos, grammar, and spelling, etc., because I am writing this on my phone and don’t always review it.

Best wishes to all,

Ted

Leaving Coca.

Going through the forest surrounding Coca.

Coming out of the forest entering the rolling farm fields.

What a view.

Camino to the right, but I’ll stay on the quiet country road.

Crossing the state line.

Country road through a small village. No restaurants or stores.

Stopped to have a snack at a park and found a friend that must be use to pilgrims feeding him.

Back on the road.

The little village of Aguasal.

On the busy highway 601 but walking on the frontage road.

The city center at Alcazaren where I spent the night at the albergue.