Day 46 Montamarta - Granja de Morerruela

POSTED ONE DAY LATE


ROBERT ARRESTED BY GUARDIA CIVIL!

Just kidding! We thought that would get your attention!  For the first time ever we were stopped by the Guardia Civil and made to show our passports.  We have been reading in the Spanish press that some drug runners are masquerading as Pilgrims to move drugs in their rucksacks!  The police were obviously looking for someone in particular as another unmarked police car arrived shortly after. It confused them that I was called Gomez but had an English passport!  After some pleasant chitchat we were on our way again!

Today the countryside was much nicer than yesterday with beautiful rolling hills.  Another improvement was that at long last there were trees which provided much needed shade!  The paths unfortunately were quite stony and my blisters suffered as a coincequence. 

We had set off from Montamarta at 0600hrs hoping to have breakfast in the village of Fontanillas de Castro, some 12 kms away.  Unfortunately we missed the turning to the bar and when we realised what we’d done, it was too late as we would have added another kilometre to our journey!

We decided to press on to the next village, Riego del Camino a mere 4 km away.  We arrived to find the bar open and a very friendly barlady, Concepcion, gave us coffee and toast.  She had been to Gibraltar on the first of only two occasions that she had left the village!  She had adored Gibraltar (well, really, who doesn’t?) but that didn’t deter her from charging us the exorbitant price of 7 euros!

Suitably refreshed and limping slightly (my blister had now become two blisters!) we carried on for the rest of our journey, another 7 kms away.  Along the way we went via the Ricobayo reservoir.  We had been warned that the water level might be too high to give us access but we found surprisingly that the levels had dropped sufficiently to let us through.  Otherwise it would have meant a long detour.

Further along we saw the ruins of Castle Castrotorafe, the old seat of the Knights of St James.  

Shortly after that we came across our South Korean friend (with the unpronounceable name!) and we followed her to our Albergue for the night at Granja de Moreruela.  The Albergue costs 5 euros each and has hot showers!  Bliss!

Tomorrow we need to decide which route to take.  We can go left towards Orense, which means tackling two massive mountains (each more or less as high as Ben Nevis) in a few days time or going north via the easier route which links eventually  with the Camino Frances.  We have always thought of going via Orense so I guess that’s the route we will chose.  We shall see!