A snorer kept most of us awake last night so, with hardly any sleep and after a heavy breakfast of fried rice (with chorizos and mushrooms) and scrambled eggs, we set out very late for one of the hardest stretches of the Meseta.

Listening to very loud rock got me through it.

When the town of Calzadilla de la Cueza came into view, I did a dance of joy, especially since a friendly face sat at the entrance to town, waving us in.

After Ulli had gone on, Stefan (also from Germany) and Susana (Spain via the U.K.) turned up.

And then we had to get back to the business of walking on towards our destination.

We’re bussing it to Leon tomorrow and spending two nights in the city. Hopefully, Stephen and Raffy will catch up with us after that.

Accommodation:

Albergue De Los Templarios

We upgraded to a private triple room. (16 euros each as opposed to 8 euros for a bunk bed in a room for eight.) The private room comes with pillow cases, blankets, TOWELS, and shampoo and body gel sachets – luxury items, as far as we are concerned.

The dormitories looked tight with no space for the backpacks. I almost got into a fight with a six-year old kid over a stool that I needed to sit on badly, but he needed for his playing cards. We decided to upgrade rather than deal with six-year old (and I suspect the parents for their own room soon after near-incident with grumpy peregrino).

Laundry was 4 euros per basket (no dryer), and the pilgrim’s meal was 10 euros (- it was average).