This is a true story. I am currently sitting in a little renovated mill called Molina Galoches just on the outskirts of a village named Villavante in Spain. Outside this building there flows a small canal that was built by the Moors over 1200 years ago when they diverted the Rio Orbigo to unusable arid land to create irrigation, all well prior to the Christian occupation. Indeed, it flows right under the building. It now looks very much like part of the natural landscape as you can imagine. It is cool and shady. I can hear crickets chirping in the early evening, birds tweet in the trees. Looking out the window of the B&B (which is effectively what this place is) I can see a long green lawn in need of a good mow but rich and deep, a garden with rustic ornaments and dry grass fields beyond. Somewhere in this delightful scene there plays gently soothing music, a sultry Doris Day maybe, as Mercedes and her husband, Massimo, prepare our evening meal.
We are the only peregrinos in tonight, the hotel takes 6 rooms of two plus the albergue they have out the back which is more dormitory style. The couple that own it, about 60 years old, purchased a delapidated mill on the Camino 6 years ago and complete and did it all up themselves. It is everything you can imagine and more. Delightful.
A sharp contrast to the rest of our day. Aye Corumba to use the local vernacular. We left Leon at 8.26am after scoffing a hurried breakfast that only began at 8am at our hotel. The walk out of Leon took us through a pretty grotty suburb but it was okay, at least there was shade. Once we hit the open country it got hot.
We walked through all the lovely little villages you would expect every 5km or so but the countryside between them was open farmland, wheat fields and little shade. The temperature soared to about 35degrees celcius, there was not a breath of wind and we spent most of our time either on dirt roads or quiet bitumen country roads. Hot, hot, hot.
But magnificent. Every little town or crossroad or cruce (cross statues that seem to be everywhere) had a lovely little stone engraved plinth with a brass tap coming out of it with beautiful agua frea (cold water). We filled our bottles often and then drank them dry before the next town. You could always see in the distance the next place you were walking to. Red tiled roofs rising above the surrounding countryside, a water tower perhaps, a barn or rendered set of ochre coloured houses in the distance. There was no fear of running out of water.
After 17km we came to a little town called Chozas de Abejo where we had a couple of beers at lunchtime, it was just too hot to eat really. The kids had some more coca cola and we were all very excited that we only had about 5kms to go after the break. When we looked at where our accommodation was, so we knew where we had to get to, we realized that it was a further 12 km on from Vilar de Mazarife, our planned destination.
Not being very impressed with the people who organised our lodgings at this point, I rang the company.
They assured me that we only had to walk to V d M and that we would be met by representative from our hotel who would give us a lift to our accommodation. In the morning they would take us back and we could continue on our way from that point. I was not real happy about that because I liked the idea of stopping where we dropped and getting up and going the next day.
But then I met Mercedes. She drove into town (picture El Poco from the 3 Amigos) like a whirlwind, kissed us all on both cheeks, opened the side of the van to reveal a box with a towel on it for the kids to sit on! Monica and I sat in the front with her and heard our kids laughing and bouncing and rolling around in the back of the van as she motored through two or three villages on the way to this idyllic setting. When we got here she raced inside, brought out two coca colas and two beers and disappeared into the mill. We sat there in the shady garden listening to the nearby water and feeling the cares of the road melt away and the heat of the day seep out of our skins and into the cool afternoon air.
We were shown to our rooms, and told that dinner would be at 7.30. As I type it is now 7.16pm and I can hear her singing along with whoever is playing upstairs as she prepares our meal. We are showered, refreshed and ready to spend a little bit more time in the company of these lovely people.
Then off to bed for more adventures on the morrow.
Buen Camino Peregrinos.
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