Hospìtal de Orbiga to Astorga: The End Of The Meseta

July 15th.  Today we began our walk in Hospital de Orbiga, a lovely little town far into the Meseta.  We entered the town over a magnificent stone bridge (cobble stones and pebbles set in concrete) and continued on to the countryside beyond.  We are still on the Meseta but the middle kilometres, which were so ugly (yes, those writers mentioned earlier were right about some parts of the Meseta being ugly – but not all of it), have given way to a more beautiful landscape once again. 

Note on the Ugly Meseta. One problem for us was that we were often required to take an alternative route that ran beside the busy N120, a major highway that snakes across northern Spain and passes through several deserted villages and run-down industrial areas.  Still, even amongst all that ugliness, I saw many beautiful birds - which rather made up for it.

Our Walk Continued.  As soon as we left Hospital de Orbiga we found ourselves in beautiful farmland, with hectares of maize (aka corn in N. America - here grown only to feed the farm animals) and potatoes.  Later, as we wound our way up several small hills we saw blackberry brambles and rosehips at the side of the trail.  Rosehips - another great childhood memory: picking baskets and baskets full of rosehips and selling them for sixpence a pound to I don’t remember who!  They were used to make that wonderful rosehip syrup (so full of Vitamin C) that we were given as a reward for taking the oh so horrid cod-liver oil!

Later we saw hazel nuts and apple trees - not the carefully groomed apple trees we see in southern Ontario but gnarly old trees laden with apples that will almost certainly be eaten by worms or wasps before they can be harvested.

One of my favourite sounds on this walk - and one not often heard in Canada - is the sound of roosters crowing.  We hear them in almost every village.  They always make me think of Chanticleer in The Canterbury Tales and, to be truthful, some peregrinos make me think of him too.  One in particular, who was on the same schedule as us for a couple of days, was constantly preening himself and prancing around in front of all the women.  I told Roxanne we should add another story to Chaucer's famous poem - we could call it The Rake’s Tale!

Later same day we saw beautiful black and white Friesian cows and heard lambs bleating from a large barn.  Today was such a wonderful contrast to the three or four previous days.  The predominant colours of the landscape were pale gold, burnt orange, red ochre and dark olive green - beautiful!

 Now we are in the lovely old town of Astorga, staying in the Gaudi Hotel right across from the Gaudi Palace (a great example of Gaudi’s work) and kitty-corner from the cathedral - life does not get much better than this!

Tomorrow we head for Rabinal del Camino and the day after that we begin our climb to the pass of Irago and the Cruz de Farro - the highest point on the entire walk.  I am very much looking forward to the view from the top which, I have read, is wonderful (actually there was no view from the top but great views on the climb up).

Next Day (July 16th).  Since we did not find an Internet Cafe yesterday, I am updating these last two days together.  Today we went from Astorga to Rabinal.  We walked towards, and into, the foothills of the Montes de Leon.  The countryside was lovely - mostly scrub grass and very tall gorse bushes.  Later the gorse bushes were replaced with rosehips again and then with small bushy trees with waxy leaves.  Later we saw more wheat fields and had a great view of the mountains up ahead and off to the south.  Of course, as usual, the mountains were dotted with the ubiquitous windmills.

Several friends have written to ask if it was not a little sad to meet people on the trail only to see them disappear a few weeks, or even a few days, later.  I think one could see it that way, but I prefer to think how wonderful it was to meet them at all and to spend time with them during our short stops or over a glass of wine or a meal.  We cannot physically hold on to people but we can keep them in our memories.  We’ll always remember our Camino friends and our brief encounters with them on this amazing walk!