The guidebook provides a warning for today – there is little shade and few water fonts so take care. It would have been nice to need shade and, as it turned out, we had plenty of water!
We had a lovely stay in Castrojeriz – a nice hotel, good food, a bit if a sleep in and a very welcoming host!
We knew it was going to be wet day, so we set of fully prepared and confident we could take what the elements threw at us. It was wet leaving town and crossing the río Odrilla valley between Castrojeriz and the climb up to the plateau but our confidence grew as the rain eased during the climb. Even more so as our geared dried out in the relatively short transit across the plateau and the descent down into the next valley. Although the path was very muddy in places (I’m talking about a couple of hundred grams of mud sticking to each shoe!) the rain was relatively light until about 5km from Itero de la Vega, reaching its peak just as we entered the village and found a coffee shop to rest and dry off in.
At this stage we were fairly confident we had seen the worst of the weather off – it was just before 12 noon when the rain was supposed to clear for the day. However, the forecast changed to extend the rain for another hour, so we set off hoping for the lighter rain we’d had earlier in the day. Well, about a km from Itero the heavens opened up for about an hour – our ponchos keep most of us dry but here are no shoes that can stay dry in those conditions so we squelched away for the next couple of hours as we made really good time into Boadilla del Camino. Just as the sun was coming out, and our ponchos had almost completely dried, a very wet “sunshower” drenched us again and turned the track into a couple of rivers – the water wasn’t pooling it was flowing down the hill!
Anyway, we good everything but our socks and shoes dry before Boadilla and had a good break before tackling the last 6km or so into Frómista. Our accommodation is great, there’s a balcony to dry our gear on, Alison is getting a foot and head massage and the forecast is for cool but clear conditions tomorrow so happy days!
A soggy 26km today and now we have completed 348km since leaving St. Jean. The route video is here.
steelewalking 