Day 11- Changes

Took a different approach to the walk today. Even though the terrain was mostly flat, I decided to have my back pack transported for me. This involves committing to a destination for the day so one can report to the transportation company. I like not deciding until noon as I am never sure how I might feel or when I might need to stop. However, I made the decision to ship it do this and committed by selecting tonight’s and tomorrow night’s albergue and then booking the transport of my backpack each day. It is really quite simple in that one completes a form online or manually and identifies where to pick up and where to deliver. The pick ups occur in the morning after 8:30 and delivery occurs around 12:30-2:30pm. The strange thing was it took me several minutes to close the gate at the Albergue Alea this morning because I felt I left something! The result was as promised and when I arrived at Albergue La Piedra about 12:39pm, my backpack and a few others were waiting. Relief!

The walk today was mostly flat but small hills to keep it interesting. I left again in darkness and was nearly to small towns when it was fully daylight and time for the first coffee! My knee was hurting from the first steps so the decision to send it was a good one. I still had a small string bag with my extra shoes, a couple bars, water, toothbrush and my credentials. Several “cafe” stops were made.

I was not aware that this region, Villafranca del bierzo has a designation of wine making. All day the hills and fields were covered with grapevines bursting to be harvested. Several times I passed the vineyards tractors collecting the grape bunches which pickers had just collected!

Everyone says “it’s your Camino so do it like you want to do it.” I got this a lot when debating the jump ahead. Around noon, I got a new lesson in the Camino when I encountered a group which was being dropped off in a little town so they could hike. Turns out their “tour” would drop them for about a 3 mile hike, then be waiting to take them to a nice lunch before giving them time for hiking. After their frolic, they returned to their hotel until the next day. I walked with 3 retired ladies from the Mid-Atlantic who filled me in on the whole trip. Not my ideal way but to each their own!

The rest of the walk into Villafranca del bierzo was nice as the clouds burned off and sunny blue skies appeared. Arrived at my albergue, as mentioned, before check in and since my backpack had arrived, I decided to lighten the load and sent some of my untouched items ahead to Santiago with the Spanish Post -Correos. Was surprised it was over a kilo (in fact, almost 3 lbs). Will definitely help when i start carrying again in a couple days.

Today will be the last day of scruffy selfies! I finally had enough of the itchy and all the grey on my face and shaved for the first time since I arrived!