Thursday 31 May 2012

Day 6 and 7 Baena to Santa Cruz


Day 6       May 30th                  Baena to Castro del Rio  - 20 kms
Ok.. I am tired. This camino stuff is hard work. I’m absolutely loving it, but it is work. Poor Spencer, he had dreams of snake attacks all night. In retrospect the snake thing was pretty scary. Spencer keeps reliving the attack over and over. We think the snake attacked him because Spencer was unknowingly threatening him with his walking pole. Spen was merely looking at what was rustling in the grass. 

We were on the road by 6am again.  The heat is good motivation for rising early. The morning coolness and stillness is wonderful. We find that if we walk steady for 3 hours we can cover a lot of distance. In the morning we seem to be averaging about 5kms an hour. As soon as the heat hits, the speed drops considerably. 


Last night we stayed in a hostel in the centre of Baena. The owners were Romanian and were very kind to us, but I am not too sure about their cleanliness standards.  Spencer pulled back his sheets and found quite a few curly hairs. We were both so tired that we didn’t put up a fuss. 




We are making up for it today though! Today we are staying in a little “Casa Rural” in Castro Del Rio.
 What a marvelous place it is. The owners have renovated, what was basically a cave, into a very clean, delightful pilgrim refuge. It is a complete house, 3 bedrooms, full kitchen, all for 36 euros a night. (special deal for pilgrims) 

This former cave/house has been occupied since the year 800 AD. The talkative owners were happy to show us all the relics they found whilst renovating. I am so glad that Spencer and I can speak Spanish as I think it would be very difficult to do this pilgrimage without some good basic Spanish. 
Castro Del Rio is town with a lot of history. It has been a major centre since the Bronze Age and many of Roman artworks that were found bear the same markings as those of Pompeii. It seems every village we have been to on this route has a defense castle and a church that once belonged to the Moors but was then taken over by the Christians. Every village has such history.
The food is also something to marvel at. At some time during the day we usually try to find a bar that serves “menu del Dia” This is usually a huge meal, consisting of soup or salad, a main course, dessert and wine or coffee all for 10 euros. We were having dinner last night when 2 cowboys showed up for some takeaway food. The bartender proceeded to give them beers out of the window. What service!!


Day 7                      Castro del Rio to Santa Cruz                  21kms
The landscape is beginning to change, there are less and less olive trees and more and more wheat and other grain fields 

It was a steady climb out of Castro del Rio. It was dark as we left and as we looked back it was amazing to see how far we have actually come. We have now done about 120 kms, hard to believe.
We are starting to find our rhythm. It looks like we are basically getting up very, very early, stopping after 3 hours to refuel with cheese, bread, fruit and nuts and then continuing on to the destination.
We will soon have to get up around 4am, as the heat is such a factor, to walk after 11 am will be impossible.
Sometimes I think we are nuts. Everyone looks at us as if we are nuts. So many people have no idea that this ancient pilgrimage exists in this part of Spain. They all know about the “Camino Frances” which travels along the northern part of Spain.
We did though, have our first man write out a sin for us to carry to Santiago. Yesterday, when were in the “cowboy’s takeaway bar” a man came up to us with a note that we are to carry to Santiago. He is asking for God’s blessing and forgiveness. He didn’t mention what he had done, but we will carry the note with us. When we get to Santiago we will remember him and ask for a blessing.

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