Another 30.5km day – 8am to 6pm walking
We left Sahagun at dawn (8am now) , and after wandering around the town centre of Sahagun, we found no shops open. It frustrates us the spanish attitude to retailing. In some little villages you will find an enterprising retailer who opens his shop early, and its packed with pilgrims buying supplies, food, cafe and more. However in the larger towns there is often nothing open before 9am, well after most pilgrims have left. So a hundred or so pilgrims left Sahagun this morning without any supplies for what for most was going to be a long day, walking past closed shops.
We needed to walk 30km + today, because they was a place to stay at 17.8km, (to short, putting us behind) or do 30.5km, and stay at Reliegos. We did 10km to Bercianos del Real Camino and did look for a shop that was meant to be there, but no luck, we continued on. It was cold and overcast, but no rain.
Another 7.5km got us to El Burgo Ranero, where we found a very helpful english speaking girl at the church who stamped our credentials and directed us to the Plaza Mayor (main town square), where there was a shop, and a fuente (water fountain), and seats, and the sun had come out to shine on us.
We got out our blue bowl and did our feet soaking in cold water, knowing we had 13km more to do. After a nice lunch, we headed of towards Reliegos, knowing there was nothing to stop at in between.
We met on the way Otto, a Nuclear Physist from Germany, how had restarted his Camino from Sahagun, which he had stopped at a couple of years ago. It was a long drag up to Reliegos, with our feet aching well by the time we got there. We were lucky again, we got in just, with the hospitalerro turning away 5 bike riders after we got in. However we did note that another walker was let in later, confirming that they treat walkers more favorably than bike riders.
We got a bed in a big room with mattresses on the floor, and had dinner at the local Bar Gil with Otto.
the long 13km long stretch to Reliegos
the overflow sleeping room at Reliegos (the main rooms with bunks were already full)
our pilgrim credentials - we need these to get into albergues, and get them stamped at every place we stay
