Azofra to Redecilla - 8/19

(Distance: 26.3 kms   Time: 7.5 hours)
The Day: We left really early this morning (6:15) but for some reason I was having an off day and kept us at a snail's pace. It was dark when we left and we had to search for the "yellow arrow" markers very carefully with a head lamp. The terrain started out pretty much the same but turned more interesting as the day wore on. The first town we got to was a golf course community and unlike anything we have seen thus far. We stopped in the club house to get a drink and I ended up paying almost $6 for a glass of orange juice. At first I felt bad about entering the bar area all sweaty and smelly with a backpack on but after the $6 for the orange juice I got over it quickly. A little further on 2 pilgrims ahead of us missed the marker for a turn and by the time we reached the turn we realized they went the wrong way. We could still see them way down the wrong path and with the help of another pilgrim we screamed, shouted and whistled and finally got their attention and they turned around. That is how it is on the camino, everyone looks out for each other. Later, we passed the Italians that we had given our bottle of wine to the night before and they greeted us warmly telling us they had toasted us after we left. We reached the town we had targeted and decided to push on to the next town. (Nothing like getting ahead of a project plan :-) ... Espy, pay attention!) So today's walk ended up a little over 16 miles. That puts about 150 miles behind us so far with a mere 350 miles to go ... sigh.

The People: The town we are in has about150

 people that live here. We really haven't met anyone new today as we pretty much spent a quiet day today.

on the road at sunrise ... again

only 571 kms to go

fields of sunflowers as far as you can see

Navarette to Azofra - 8/18

(Distance: 23.2 kms  Time: 5 hours)
The Day: The town festival was still going strong in the morning. We got a late start (yea ... more sleep) but overall made good time. We had to leave Navarette without any breakfast so we struggled on the first section. It seems we do actually need that cup of coffee first thing. So we stopped and got coffee & pastries which gave us both a boost. Our original goal was Najera but getting there early gave us the opportunity to push on to Azofra. That turned out to be a good decision because the albergue in Azofra was fairly new and had great accommodations ... washing machines, a shallow pool with cool water that felt great on tired feet and individual rooms with 2 beds each. We were able to relax some (I took a nap) soak our feet and trade conversation with some other pilgrims we hadn't met before. The road seems monotonous at times and reflective at others. Santiago feels like it is a long ways away even though we have already walked over 100 miles.

The People: Our path crossed again with Cherry from NYC and shared some good faith based conversation. We continue to run into Patrick and seem to be on a parallel course with a bunch of Italians. We ate dinner by ourselves but did not finish the bottle of wine that comes with a pilgrim's meal. As we were leaving the restaurant the Italians 

came in and we gave them the rest of the bottle ... I think we made some good friends!

leaving Navarette

the walk later in the day

pool that we cooled our feet in at the albergue

our room for the night