Camino del Norte
Day 23
Sept 25
We left this morning at 7:40… we are walking alone as our Dutch violin player and our Danish guy have decided to camp out on the mountain tonight. We see a romance blooming with those two as we have walked together since Irun…3 weeks ago and they have become very close.
Today we walked over the famous ‘Hospitals’ route… one of the two choices for getting across the mountain range. Hospital refers to the original stone huts we pass along the way which merely provided shelter for the original pilgrims as in hospitality. One route goes through the valley with a short but very steep climb at the end and the other route is a more steady climb as we reach some 1200m in elevation. The vistas are outstanding, green valleys and steep hillsides. Near the top the wind was very strong and threatened to blow us off the hill. The sun was strong but the temperature was still a bit cool…we wore Tshirts but most were bundled in jackets and hats etc. There are now many wind turbines on the ridges and hilltops… we took many photos but again it is not possible to capture the variety and the feeling as we walk along a mountain trail that was first walked in the year 800 something.
‘Primitivo’ means ‘the first’… this was the original Way that was first walked by the Spanish king Alphonse ll to witness firsthand the tomb of Saint James who was buried in Santiago in 44AD…..so the legend goes.
We arrived around 2:30 at Berducedo which is another tiny village with 3 or 4 albergues and not much else. The sun is hot, we washed our sweaty clothes outside and had a few ‘radler’… cold beer with lemon juice. Pilgrim dinner 10€ for 2 courses plus wine and dessert. Another 25km day planned tomorrow as we are still in the mountains with few services including no cell coverage here tonight.
Good night all!
Tim
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