I didn’t intend to get to Belorado today – I was going to stop in either of the two previous villages, but neither of them could entice me to stay. I did wander around the first village/hamlet…
…and took the same photo I remember taking last time.
I stopped to draw the church and walk right around it in Viloria.
I stopped in Villamayor del Rio
And I walked on to Belorado, arriving just in time to join the line for the parroquial albergue where we stayed last time and learnt to play BLOB, and climbed up the hill to play hide and seek, and waited the next day for the pharmacy to open so Rob could get something for an eye infection. The only thing I repeated this time was climbing the hill to look down on the town and wonder if the storks are the same ones that were in the nest ten years ago – they tend to live for over two decades and they return to the same nest year after year, so it is plausible.
This time the church was open so I took a look
I also wandered down to the Plaza Mayor and was wowed by the trees surrounding a rotunda – it would be a great shady place to sit in summer and listen to a band play
And because I was not wanting salad or sandwiches again for dinner, at 5 o’clock when the supermarket opened after siesta, I visited, bought food and for the first time since leaving NZ I actually cooked a meal. Yay for the butcher on the way back to the albergue who allowed me to buy one sausage!
And what about the actual walk?
It was pretty much next to a main highway on the right all the way and fields to the left….and the wind made yesterday’s seem like a breeze. New measures were called for
Note wind flattening sun hat against the side of my face, whipping hair out from under the buff and violently flapping the back flap. This only lasted for a short stretch of road, then there was a ninety degree corner and it was head wind all the way. According to cyclists, if they stopped pedalling even on the downhills they were blown backwards. Not sure if that’s the making of an urban legend, but it doesn’t seem unfathomable.
There were a lot of people on the path today, but I walked alone and was just thinking about how it was the first day I had not walked with anyone, when I had to wait to cross that truck-filled road and a Canadian lady caught me up. We walked the last kilometre into town together and she exclaimed that despite living on the prairie, she had never walked in a wind like today’s. And she won’t be walking tomorrow, because it’s her birthday.
I have frequently been thinking about being in the moment and not looking ahead…and I realised that I was expecting the last ten minutes of the walk to be the same as the rest…it can be really hard to be in the right here and now.
Now about that wind, and the cold. Some family members have said it sounds miserable, but it’s not. Today was INVIGORATING. It felt like an achievement to push against it all day and get where you were trying to go. It felt like an achievement to work out how many layers were needed to stay warm too! Physical challenges overcome, and you feel the stronger for it.
Noteable Mention:
The reference to my Favourite Son Who Lives In Australia yesterday just may have been the catalyst for a 92-line message from My Favourite Youngest Son. It was a fine piece – chatty, thoughtful, humorous, informative, including good news of positive life changes, and a question to stimulate further conversation and show he was taking an interest in the other party.
So here’s the score for my uber-competitive bunch of kids… (appeals by invested parties will be considered and results adjusted accordingly)
Favourite Eldest Daughter:
1 point for having T for dinner
1 point for asking for the blog address
1 point for asking when I get back
Favourite Eldest Son:
1 point for knowing where the blog address was pinned
1 point for pinning it
1 point for keeping the cookie jar full
Favourite Son in Australia:
1 point for calling yesterday
1 point for telling me he was sad I was travelling alone
2 points for starting Messenger conversations
1 point for reminding me of an important date I may have forgotten
Favourite Second Daughter (NOT second favourite daughter lol)
1 point for calling the day before yesterday
1 point for organising a family dinner this weekend
1 point for delivering ANZAC cookies to Dad
Favourite Son Who Lives At Home Again:
1 point for sitting on the couch with his foot strapped up and talking on this morning’s call
1 point for starting a Messenger conversation
Favourite Youngest Son:
1 point for sending a message
1 point for it being so long
1 point for continuing the conversation
1 point for stopping the conversation and at least pretending to go to bed seeing as it was after midnight
Favourite Flying Daughter:
1 point for keeping us all in the loop about her work plans
1 point for stalking me on Flight Radar when I left
Favourite Youngest Daughter:
1 point for answering a message I sent
1 point for working hard – you’ve been at work every time there has been a call from home
solowalk 2024 