emilyonearth

What ridiculously long names these towns have!

Today was another day of flat and straight. Very few ups, downs, lefts, or rights. It isn’t challenging walking, but it’s also not very engaging mentally. There was 17km between our starting town and the next town in the trail, and all the guidebooks (or apps, as the case may be) recommend a full water bottle for this section. It turns out that at the 9km point, some one has made the most of the scarcity of towns, and has set up a semipermanent food truck installation. Mum had her usual tortilla, and I had a ham and cheese toasted sandwich – yum. Oh, and the wrapper for the cookie that comes with the coffee had te reo Māori on it!

We also stopped at the town at the end of the 17km stretch for a drink and a toilet break (public toilets aren’t really a think so it can be hard to come by a place to go!) from here on the trail was largely back to being along the road. There were also a few more trees on this section, but these seemed to be accompanied by flies that would swarm you and follow you, so you’re constantly brushing them out of your face, and you’re looking like a wild person attempting some sort of martial art while walking down the track…

It’s another of those tiny towns without a shop, cafe, or bar tonight, so we engaged once again in the albergue communal meal. It was nice! For the first course you could choose from lentil soup, chicken soup, or potato soup. For the second course it was either chicken, pork, or fish, all with potatoes and salad, and then for dessert there was cooked apple, flan, fruit, or ice cream. I had the chicken soup, pork, and watermelon, and mum had the lentils, the chicken, and the watermelon. Oh, and we also have our own room in the albergue! It’s like luxury but with paper sheets…

Finally, we have now walked more than half of the total distance of the Camino Francés! the geographical midpoint is somewhere during tomorrow’s walk, but kilometre-wise, we’re over halfway!