29.3 km ~ 41,210 steps
Song of the Day: Realize – Colbie Caillat
Woke up this morning to Maverick barking while lying across my chest. Surprisingly, sleeping on my mat in the garden hadn’t been bad at all. Maverick had slept pressed against me and partly on top of me, so it hadn’t been all that cold. Other than the dew covering us, it really was kind of nice. Except for the fact that Maverick was now guarding me from two scared Asian women. The poor girls just wanted to grab the clothes they had left to dry on the line overnight. I laughed and told them he wasn’t going to attack, then took my time rolling up our makeshift camp. I somehow had managed to sleep in later than I thought we would since we were sleeping out in the open air, but I still wasn’t in a rush this morning.
A lot of people were nervous for today because it was supposed to be mountainous, but that just meant it was definitely right up Maverick and my alleys. The weather couldn’t have been nicer, partly cloudy with a nice breeze, and we started the day through rolling hills and a couple sleepy towns. We were walking with the friend Andre from Germany who we had dinner with the night before. Eventually we parted ways when Maverick and I broke off to check out the odd structure in one of the fields. I still don’t exactly know what it was, or why it was there, but it seemed to be almost a jail cell.
Just after that, we took a long break in Villafranca de Montes de Oca to refill our water and prep for what was supposed to be a steep climb. A woman stopped across from us, a baby strapped into the bag on her back. I hadn’t ever talked to her before, but I had caught a couple glimpses of her in passing this week. Some other pilgrims passed us with smiles, claiming their two favorite pilgrims were in one place – the baby and the dog!
The “steep climb” ended up not being bad at all, really just one hill, so compared to the climb over the Pyrenees the other week, this was nothing. And there were trees! Huzzah for trees! After taking a break at the monument built to remember the Spanish Civil War, we continued walking on with a guy from Boston who had started walking in Le Puy, France. He had been on the trail for close to 40 days now, and we walked together for quite a long time while he told me about his family in Santiago and how he came to do his Camino. Eventually, his well-seasoned walking legs outpaced me and we went our separate ways while the trail continued on through a wide logging road all the way to San Juan.
Though this is where Brierly’s guide says to rest for the night, there wasn’t much to this “town”. We fueled up on an egg and ham bocadillo that I shared a hefty amount with Maverick before curling up for a catnap in the shade. The day was so nice, I decided to continue on to Ages. I couldn’t have been any happier for this decision. This was probably my favorite stretch of trail so far, with plenty of trees, before opening up to look down on Agés in the distance with a perfect tree to rest under before the final walk into town.
Getting there, we were given our own albergue! Yes, own albergue!! El Pajar is owned by the same people who run an annex albergue just across the way and they set us up in there, graciously allowing Maverick inside without hesitation. Since this was such a small town and not the main stopping point for many, we were the only ones inside! Hands down my favorite stay on The Way so far!
We even got to have dinner with other pilgrims back at El Pajar, meeting two cousins from California who had befreinded another from the States and they kept us all in good spirits. Since there was no store in this little town with dog food, I ordered Maverick a plate of steak and eggs with french fries from a cafe that he ate like a king.