Ledigos to Bercianos Del Real Camino – 27.0km, 5.75 hours, Hostal Rivero, 45€

Our plan was to wake up at the usual 6am but we had everything packed so we could get out quickly to walk under the stars. If you want to hear God laugh, make plans. Around 4am I awoke to loud thunder crashing nearby. This was a surprise. Eventually the rains came so after some more sleep we got all geared up for the rain and walked outside at 7am. Three seconds later, the rain stopped. It was on and off the whole walk, even alternating with bright sunshine as we reached the last 5km into Bercianos.

All is good though and it’s just another day on the meseta. My jerry-rigged umbrella worked great transitioning from rain protection to sun protection. Once again, the trail was mainly flat with only 206m of total ascent for the day spread over about 205 different small “hills”. Today, I felt compelled to list the time of 5.75 hours which was the actual walking time. Our total time from one albergue to the next was actually one hour longer and that difference was attributed to two toilet/breakfast stops and many stops to put on and take off rain gear. It also took us a while to find a torch as we forgot to get it ready before hitting the dark trail. I never think of everything. We also got to walk between fields of corn today and I love that. Corn, tomatoes and sunflowers are the only crops I am able to positively identify without sending pictures to my farmer son. One last thing about the walk that seemed odd to us today was that we didn’t run into Felix or any of his girlfriends. We feel almost empty.

I have to diverge a bit today because the hostal where we are sleeping today is the same one we stayed in eleven years ago. We loved it then but we must have forgotten about the bathroom. It’s more typical of what we get in Europe compared to the other places we have stayed. Take for example the shower. It’s so small that you can’t bend over at all. They put the soap dispenser on the floor either to tease you or to save money. The minute I try to bend far enough to wash my thighs, I feel like the faucet is giving me a prostate exam. Then I have to be careful because if I wiggle to the left, the water scalds me. If I wiggle to right, I freeze. Also, when I flush the urinal next to the shower, the water sprays everywhere. Bathrooms in Europe are strange.

One question that we are often asked by our friends who haven’t walked a Camino is why we do it. Our answer often varies depending on the situation. We do it to be in shape at least once a year, we do it to meet people from all over the world and see new places and cultures that we would never otherwise see, we do it to take ourselves out of our comfort zone, we do it so we have time to reflect, we do it to spend more time by ourself and with each other, we do it to spend more time talking to Him, and we do it to remind ourselves what little we really need.

Mostly though, we walk the Camino to experience pure joy many times every day. We also learn to recognize and appreciate this joy. We find joy in the simple things like taking off our boots after the walk, putting on our boots in the morning, stepping into a dry shelter out of the rain, stepping out into a lovely cool rain, seeing a rainbow or a million stars, finishing the day’s chores and putting our feet up, discovering burrita salad, receiving a “buen Camino” from a random local person, smelling clean clothes, running into someone you met briefly over a pilgrim meal two weeks ago and getting to hear their stories, and arriving in Santiago (hopefully) and finding out that we still have it in us.

These things just don’t make us happy, they make us joyful.

Find joy! Peace y’all. Goodnight George and Leo. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. If they try, punch their teeth out!