Day 20 - El Burgo Ranera to Mansilla de las Mulas

 

Early start from El Burgo Ranera.

Breakfast today was at the blessed time of 6.30am, so we were out the door and walking before 7am. 

We made fast time, catching up with Rich and his daughter Willow from the US and walking several kilometres with them at a brisk pace. Although the path alongside the road was relatively smooth, we walked at first on the road itself, where no unexpected stones underfoot would cause us grief.

We were amused by the signs at the many picnic areas along the path. At first I thought they were instructions for exercises, but soon realised they had a far more practical purpose. To help you with comprehension - most days, we wake, have the earliest breakfast possible and set off as soon as we can to avoid the heat of the day. Our intestines should get the message that as soon as we wake, there's no time to lose and we need essential functions carried out. Failing that, it might be a two or three hour walk to the first available toilet. I've always told myself that I can make it ok, just obey the ancient advice to old people: "Never trust a fart". It seems the authorities recognise this and instead of putting up signs telling you to put a cork in it, these signs advise that if you do squat in their picnic area, you must be sure not to walk away from it. The approved behaviour is to pick it up and put it in the bin provided. Really?

We chatted to Rich and Willow about music. Rich thoroughly approved of yesterday's Johhny Cash song. At the age of eight he'd persuaded his mother and aunt to take him to a live concert. Rich will make a guest appearance in our music of the day spot below.

Apart from that, there wasn't a lot of entertainment on the day's walk except to watch the distant ominous black clouds, which appeared to be bringing heavy showers to the west and north.

Reliegos had a lovely selection of little bodegas, used for storage of grain and wine.

At about 13km we made it to the very pleasant village of Reliegos, which had an abundant supply of bars, each with their attendant toilets, as well as a nice lineup of bodegas.

Corn crops get a good soaking.

Vast sprinkler systems trace circles across the landscape.

During the day we couldn't help but notice how much some of the fields were being watered extensively, either by a grid of individual sprinklers or by those giant structures that wheel around vast areas from a central pivot point. On the Relive video below, look out for the large crop circles that indication where one of these mammoth structures has been at work.

Water everywhere. Where does it come from?

So where does all this water come from? Frequently we'll pass large canals or smaller aqueducts. But we're on a high plain. The Meseta we're walking across is at an altitude of 600m-800m. Maybe there are underground springs?

For the last kilometre or so we chatted to Tracey, from Windsor in Canada. As promised, we'll put today's blog on the Camino 2022 blog for her to read.

As we got closer to Mansilla de las Mulas (the place where you have a hand on, or maybe saddle the mule), the dark clouds became more ominous. We found our hotel quickly - so quickly that I forgot to stop my watch, so the Relive video is about 15 minutes longer than it should be - and as we checked in our host observed that there seemed to be a big storm coming.

He wasn't kidding. As we arrived in our room the thunder and lightning started, with copious rain bucketing down. Another possible source of water for the crops. It continued for nearly an hour, while we showered and washed the day's clothes in the shelter of our room. 

Later we went out to find lunch and check the town, to find little clumps of bedraggled pilgrims who weren't allowed to check in to their accommodation until a certain hour and had got fairly soaked.

We found a bar where we ordered bocadillos and beer. We're a little bit over the Spanish bread. Mostly it's like french sticks with extremely hard crusts. The typical bocadillo will have very little filling, no butter, mayonnaise or dressing of any kind. No tomatoes, lettuce or subsidiary filling. My chorizo version today was just bread and thinly sliced sausage. Cathie's was just bread and cheese. Tough chewing. As a friend of ours would no doubt observe, the roof of your mouth is; "ripped to shreds". After several such difficult lunches (and breakfasts) I think we're over it. There's only so much bread you can eat.

Wine for pilgrims.

We called in at a grocery store and picked up a bottle of wine to lubricate today's blog very appropriately labelled, at an appropriate price - €2.30. Not gourmet.

And so to today's Relive video - look out for the crop circles: https://www.relive.cc/view/v7O9B1zArL6 (note the unintentional error in the name of our destination for the day)

Here's today's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aM9RRKTXzmVQ4nNq6

Here's today's music, thanks to our guest DJ Rich: https://youtu.be/wTP2RUD_cL0