Camino Pilgrim

Woke up from a looong sleep and my feet were just perfect. A little stiff from the cold bath yesterday, but after a few steps I was completely normal. Just in case, I did add a fresh Compeed plaster on both of my Achilles today.

The weather outside was rainy from the start. At first, I was walking for two hours in what we call mushroom rain in Estonia.

I did not take a backpack cover to this Camino to save space, so I am walking with my waterproof jacket wide open from the front. I am using it like a poncho to cover both me and the backpack. Usually I have been just fine like this. Especially when the rain drops straight down.

Today the rain came from a nice angle towards me and I got really wet. It took me another half hour or a bit more to reach a place where I can swap into warm clothes. In the image you can see my hideout in Santillana del Mar, an old medieval town, where I was sitting on a cold stone swapping clothes and socks to get warm.

The rain lasted for almost two hours. The second hour I spent in a nearby cafe. Somehow, most places were closed today, even though it’s not a holiday. Here, bars usually have one day a week off. I assume that I kept walking on a bad day in this area.

The walk just before and after Santillana del Mar was just amazing. Small green hills filled with cows, sheep and tiny cottages. The day only got worse after Caborrendondo. Then I had to walk on relatively busy roads with no space to hide from car traffic.

I would have liked to walk 10km further today, but I was late making a booking. All the cheap places got grabbed as soon as the heavy rain started. I was still hiking back then and was unable to use a phone screen.

I did some route planning and saw that I was forced to pre-book the next few days to get good deals. Open albergues are too few and far apart to rely on them.

Santillana del Mar has a really cool albergue, a former medieval cloister for nuns that has been re-made as accommodation for pilgrims. I hope to stay there one day. This small medieval town really seemed special, although covered in touristic little shops.