After a free breakfast of coffee, bread, ham and chorizo we set off at 0715 hrs for San Pedro, 18.6 miles away. The most daunting thing ahead was the climb to 3600 feet of the Pico de la Duena. My left foot was still troubling me although the hour I spent massaging it with an anti-inflammatory gel, paid off!
The road was at first along the old "Calzada Romana, or old Roman road, which is currently being excavated. It was interesting to see how the road was built up in various layers. Characteristically, the road was straight for several miles after which we had to climb fairly steeply up 1.86 miles to the Pico de la Duena. This was without doubt one of the most strenuous things we have had to do on this journey but the views from the top were truly amazing. My thanks to Ana Maria and to Katrin for their encouragement as we went up and they could see I was dragging my left foot a bit!
The path on the other side of the mountain decended sharply also for nearly two miles and we were amazed to see two pilgrims running down the hillside, complete with backpacks! I'm glad to say we took a more gingerly approach. After that the path levelled off and we followed a very straight tarmac road for several miles before arriving at San Pedro de Rozados. Needless to say this was the old Roan road which has been resurfaced with tarmac. Such a shame but I guess inevitable.
In San Pedro we had intended to stay at the Albergue there. There was room for 9 people but only one small shower, which had water sloshing all over the floor. Ana Maria and I were very tired and we decided to try a local Hostal, "VII Carreras" the only other accommodation in the village. The accommodation was good but they ripped us off to such an extent that I was very angry.
We found nevertheless that the hostal was one of two places where we could get a reasonable telephone connection, the other being the church at the other end of the village! We wanted to speak with Celine who was celebrating her 30th birthday. She and her boyfriend Alan are in the process of buying their first house together and naturally she is very excited at the prospect. We send them both our love. We also managed to speak to James, who had just returned from Italy where he had gone to a friend's wedding with Kate his girlfriend. He was just about to update the map on our blog and wanted to know where we were! He is arranging to buy me a new pair of hiking shoes as mine are slowly disintegrating! We also managed to speak with Doris Ana Maria's mother in Argentina through the magic of Skype.
Tomorrow we will be on our way to Salamanca!
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