18 May to Villarmentero de Campos

“Radical acceptance” were the words I walked out with this morning.

Started by accepting that most people were getting up at 5 and I was not going to go back to sleep, so I also made an early start….and got to bear witness to a glorious sunrise, and then watch the light play across the fields.

There was supposed to be a simple walk alongside the canal, but – radical acceptance (after momentarily wondering if you might be allowed through because it was Saturday and no one would be working!) – no, a detour…

And it’s not like there was NO canal walking…it had started in the mist…

…then there was the detour for some serious road building…

…and then rejoined the canal until crossing it at Frómista.

Time for breakfast. Radical acceptance does not mean you have to have a sweet pastry from the first bar when you really want tortilla de patatas. You go to the second one.

Radical acceptance acknowledges that in Spain most shops shut at 2 on Saturday and don’t reopen until Monday. While there have been exceptions, I don’t want to count on that, so I pick up some supplies.

With the tinned tuna, cashews and orange I was already carrying, that should do.

When we walked here in 2014 I did not have a guidebook and did not know there was a gorgeous church directly behind the line of bars where we bought enormous cream-filled pastries. This time I bought a small pastry and walked the three metres required to see the church!

Leaving Frómista there was quite the commotion. According to the timings on my photos, a police helicopter landed in a nearby field at 9:14, took off again at 9:19, and in between two police cars raced out of a side street and screeched to a halt, disgorging the officials. What was going on? I have no idea. The chopper passed over me a couple of times back and forth as I walked.

Radical acceptance takes the paths next to a highway and in this case made a real effort to notice my surroundings, to hopefully end up remembering more than just the puddles in the path.

Radical acceptance meant I knew it was quite likely I might not get a bed in my preferred stopping place tonight (others had reservations, but I had not even had a reply to my queries – I had tried to book, because there was no municipal albergue to just turn up at), so I had decided to stop in every village along the way to give my feet a rest just in case it was going to end up a long day. After an overpriced fresh orange juice stop in Población de Campos, I noticed all the pilgrims heading for a main road AND saw some very faded arrows leading through the village. A village walk appealed and so I followed them.

I had forgotten I had been planning on choosing the river route rather than the road – but remembered when I came across the hamlet on that route. Obviously it happened anyway.

I had just walked with an Australian lady, who was practising her own radical acceptance of an ankle injury that was preventing her from doing what she had hoped. Sounds familiar, but because she was all pre-booked through a company, she has to keep bussing and taxiing to make her accommodations. But she was still delighted to be here.

Another walking partner lasted about a kilometre until she told me to take a selfie with her and a photo of her details which she had written on a card and to walk on, because she was ready to walk alone. I did as I was told!

Well before I expected it, I saw the place I hoped to stay.

En route was a Dangerous Animal that distracted me, but it was easy to accept he would do me no harm.

In my memory, this was a nice place. We had walked along the hot dusty road to get here, poked our noses into the garden, saw the donkey we had been walking with – and for whatever reason decided not to stay. We would have already walked 24km to get here, but the kids had opted to tackle another 10.

When I walked in today there was a strong scent of incense and an even stronger hippy vibe. Maybe that’s what the kids had objected to!!

I didn’t care.

Here’s the conversation with the bead-necklace-making hippy hospitalera. I’ll translate it from Spanish for you:

“Hi, good day. How are you? Do you have a bed? Or bunk?“

“Good day, I’m well, oh you speak Spanish. Do you want to continue in Spanish?”

“Yes.”

“We have twenty beds, but we also have twenty reservations. However, someone might not come and you could have their bed.”

“I think…”

“Or we have cabins out in the field. There are three, each with two or three beds. You can look at them all and see which one you like. They have their own feel. You can use the showers and kitchen inside. I’m sorry the Albergue is full”

“No no this is perfect.”

It truly is.

I would end up with a neighbour from Adelaide in the next cabin and we would sit and chinwag in our private garden.

It might be a quirky place, but they had Vivaldi playing, so that encouraged me to stay (not that I was ever considering walking on).

And that’s not the only music. There are a guitar and a ukelele (I told you it was hippy)…and when I nipped across to take a look at the church I saw that today there was to be a choral cantata company taking the mass at 7 and doing a concert at 7:30. On the way back to the albergue I saw three people sitting on a bench eating filled rolls and as there were no packs to be seen, I figured they’d already dropped them off at accomodation nearby.

“English?” I asked as I approached. One sentence and it was clear they were kiwis. From Wanganui it turned out. They were staying at the fancy place – “the only place we could get”. I didn’t tell them there was a three bed cabin still available for half the price they had spent. They were a bit cheeky when I said I was at the hippy place.

“Yeah, we looked in there on our way past. It sure is. But you look like you’ll fit in.

I guess they had a point!

And the day ended with radical acceptance too – that I am a complete plonker sometimes! When I went to the church for the mass and there was no one there, I got suspicious. CAREFULLY reading the notice, I discovered the choir is in the village 4km away, Villalcázar de Sirga. I could be there in time for the concert, but I didn’t fancy walking back in the dark! Silly Billy me