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Day 24 - Camino Francés: Carrion to Ledigos · WCBH

• 0:25
  Good morning, day 24. We're looking today from Carrion de los Condos to Lérigos.
• 0:34
  It's about 22, 23 kilometers, so slightly above our average.
• 0:40
  But the key thing here is, first stretch is 17 kilometers between towns.
• 0:45
  So that's a fairly long run without running across a bar or a cafe.
• 0:51
  So key today was to make sure that we've got plenty of stuff in our packs,
• 0:56
  water and food, et cetera.
• 0:59
  Yesterday was Sunday, and everything in carry-on was closed pretty much for a Sunday.
• 1:08
  So we couldn't actually stock up on supplies, but fortunately this morning at
• 1:14
  a bar cafe we had breakfast yesterday,
• 1:16
  And then just as we were leaving, we're thinking, okay, we've had breakfast, that will do us.
• 1:21
  But just as we were leaving, one of the small supermarkets was opening up.
• 1:26
  So we're able to sort of stock up on, what did we get?
• 1:29
  Baguette, biscuits, some nuts, some fruit. So we've got more than enough now, probably too much.
• 1:35
  And we're carrying a bit of extra water with us today.
• 1:39
  Day begins by walking along the roadside. Still very much in a rural region of the Meseta.
• 1:46
  Still very much getting chased by tractors. I think two or three have come past now.
• 1:53
  We've got another one just bearing down on us at the moment from in front.
• 1:58
  Massive, massive tractors. Most of them are the familiar green and yellow of John Deere.
• 2:04
  A couple of red ones. I don't know what the red brand is. But a big day.
• 2:09
  So part one of today's walk was a 17-kilometer stretch.
• 2:15
  We have just reached a small town where we've stopped for lunch.
• 2:20
  Now, this 17-kilometer stretch, imagine one of those cartoons where the characters are walking along,
• 2:27
  but the background just stays the same, or they just recycle the same cell that goes around and around.
• 2:32
  Probably not used less now in today's animation, but the old type animation
• 2:37
  where the same background just went around and around and again.
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  And that's what we had today for 17 kilometres.
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  Imagine putting three characters on the road, us three, a Sandy comes the tractor to interrupt.
• 2:54
  Great timing, as always. us
• 2:58
  as the characters on the road a straight sandy
• 3:02
  rocky stretch of road green fields
• 3:05
  either side the same three or four trees with no leaves that just kept repeating
• 3:10
  itself and it just kept going for 17 kilometers oh and a really strong icy cold
• 3:18
  breeze but the good thing about the breeze it was coming in from behind.
• 3:22
  So it was hitting us in the back, not in the face.
• 3:25
  So that was, we weren't walking into the breeze and we weren't actually getting
• 3:29
  that wind burn on our face, but it was icy.
• 3:31
  And that's the way it remained for 17 kilometers. Every now and then you'd get
• 3:35
  a little bit of a rise and you think, yes, there's a rise just over that rise
• 3:39
  is going to be the town and you get over the rise.
• 3:42
  And what meets you over the rise?
• 3:45
  More road, kilometers and kilometers and kilometres,
• 3:48
  17 to be precise, but we did end up seeing a church bell tower and so we knew
• 3:55
  that there was a dip coming up because we couldn't see anything else but just
• 3:58
  the top of the church bell tower and then there was a nice little dip and the
• 4:02
  first thing we see is an albergue with a cafe bar, a catch to it.
• 4:07
  We went in just to grab a tea and they had hot chips on the menu,
• 4:12
  which is not something that we usually go for, but they had a bottle of,
• 4:17
  let me just read it for you,
• 4:19
  piri piri sauce, chili sauce, and wow, as you may or may not know, we love chili.
• 4:28
  We've seen it three times now since we've been here. One, it was just cane peppers
• 4:33
  that were battered and deep fried for pinchos. And we had that.
• 4:38
  Second time comes another tractor. Gee, we're good with these tractors.
• 4:43
  Another time was jalapenos stuffed with cheese and then deep fried,
• 4:48
  battered and deep fried.
• 4:49
  We had that as well. And this is the third time, a bottle of peri-peri sauce.
• 4:52
  So we have absolutely drowned
• 4:55
  these chips in peri peri sauce it's good
• 4:58
  peri peri sauce like it's got a real kick it's not
• 5:01
  some sort of peri peri sauce in name
• 5:04
  only and and they've forgotten the chili no this one it packs a real bunch you're
• 5:08
  going to enjoy this enjoy our hot drink and then we have six kilometers into
• 5:13
  ladigos where we're stopping for tonight and yesterday i thought Our most efficient
• 5:18
  six kilometres was our last six kilometres into town.
• 5:22
  So let's hope we can back that up today and get into Ledygos.
• 5:26
  Hopefully we get in there probably about 3.30, 4 o'clock this afternoon.
• 5:31
  So we're here. We've made it to our accommodation in Ledigos.
• 5:36
  Actually, we nearly missed out on our accommodation.
• 5:38
  Apparently, I'd booked for November.
• 5:42
  Most of our bookings we're doing through the booking.com app.
• 5:46
  This one was direct from the website.
• 5:49
  It was in Spanish. To possibly go to some extent to explaining the mishap.
• 5:55
  Anyway, the person who checked us in,
• 5:58
  she was amazing sorted that out just transferred
• 6:01
  the booking and fortunately enough it's not
• 6:04
  peak season yet so there was a private room
• 6:08
  available that we were able to have as well now this place some places like
• 6:14
  it's it's the bare minimum this place even though it's an albergue with a private
• 6:18
  room has got everything sorted like we're talking about very very welcoming
• 6:25
  from all the staff bar, cafe, restaurant.
• 6:29
  Dinner going completely against the grain.
• 6:32
  Dinner is served at six o'clock, not from six, at six. So we've been skipping all of the dinners.
• 6:40
  Actually, a lot of the places were in private accommodation,
• 6:42
  so we have to go out and find our own dinner.
• 6:44
  But the people eat here eight, nine o'clock at night, way too late for us.
• 6:49
  The girl who checked us in, she's from Venezuela, she thought that the 6pm dinner
• 6:54
  time was about spot on as well. So that suits us well.
• 6:58
  Now, the dinners, I suppose, are a little bit more expensive than what we've been having.
• 7:03
  However, there's good reason to celebrate because just as we were walking into
• 7:09
  Lledigos, there was a sign that says, congratulations, you have made it to the
• 7:15
  halfway point. We've walked.
• 7:18
  380. We've got 380 to go.
• 7:22
  That doesn't equal 790. I think that equals 760.
• 7:26
  So this calculation is off a 760. The next town that we're going to,
• 7:31
  which starts with an S, something like Sargun, it also claims that it's a halfway mark.
• 7:36
  Maybe it's claiming from the 390 mark. Who knows?
• 7:40
  But anyway, good reason to have a three-course meal tonight,
• 7:44
  which we've had once before. That was night two at Ronson Valis when we're in the albergue.
• 7:51
  The albergue experience we weren't the biggest fan of, but we did enjoy the
• 7:55
  dinner that we had there. So a good way to celebrate.
• 7:58
  But this place has every, a bowl of fruit in an albergue, like pack it for the
• 8:02
  next day and there's your fruit done for the day.
• 8:05
  A kettle, you know how much I'm a fan of the kettle.
• 8:09
  Welcome chocolate on your bed, foot cream as well after you shower to put cream
• 8:15
  on your feet like this place.
• 8:16
  And it's clean and it's new.
• 8:19
  There's a restaurant and a washer and dryer that's operated by a card so you
• 8:25
  don't have to have the right coins as well.
• 8:28
  Fireplace, didn't we see, Chan, we've seen the firewood, there's a fireplace.
• 8:32
  Yeah, this would have to be up there, Yep, up there with one of our favorite
• 8:37
  accommodations. We still prefer the apartments over this style accommodation
• 8:42
  just for the sheer space and the kitchen, et cetera.
• 8:45
  But when we go into the next classification of accommodation,
• 8:49
  this would have to be the pick of the bunch.
• 8:52
  Ooh, lots of hot water and a good hard shower.
• 8:55
  Just like that Seinfeld episode, no low flow. We want high flow and it was high
• 9:00
  flow. So at the halfway mark today, we'll also celebrate once again that we're
• 9:05
  at the halfway mark tomorrow, depending on the start and the stop point there.
• 9:09
  But that's quite amazing. This was day 23, 24, something like that,
• 9:17
  23 chances to make it to the halfway mark.
• 9:20
  So that puts us into the 40 days thereabouts to complete it.
• 9:25
  We will pick up speed because the first few days were deliberately shorter as
• 9:33
  we worked our way into it.
• 9:35
  Now, we've had our two rest days, one in Pamploma and one in Burgos,
• 9:42
  and we've got two rest days to go, one in Leon, which will be in a few days' time.
• 9:48
  I think Sherilyn calculated it, that we'll arrive in Leon on Friday.
• 9:53
  So we'll book an apartment there or a nice hotel there. So to have the two nights
• 9:59
  in Leon and then the next time.
• 10:03
  Rest day will be in Saria and Saria is a big starting point.
• 10:09
  In fact, the last time Cheryl and I, we walked the Camino was from Saria to
• 10:14
  Santiago. The last hundred and something kilometers, you're about five days
• 10:18
  out. It's a big starting point.
• 10:20
  So by the time we get close to Saria, we want to have everything booked from Saria all the way in.
• 10:26
  But the accommodation that we stayed at Saria, we're going to try and get again.
• 10:32
  It was a, I don't know what you'd classify, it was a casa or a house. The room was okay.
• 10:38
  It had a bathroom outside of the room from memory.
• 10:42
  But the reason we loved it so much was the host and the breakfast that she put
• 10:48
  on for us. It was all inclusive.
• 10:50
  I can't remember if the dinner was inclusive.
• 10:52
  Might have been inclusive. We missed the dinner because we were so jet lagged.
• 10:56
  But the breakfast, and I just remember, there was quince paste,
• 11:00
  homemade quince paste at the breakfast and she
• 11:03
  packaged some up for me and some bread to
• 11:06
  take on the walk as well so we're going to try and get into that accommodation
• 11:10
  when we get there but an amazing day today a hard slog 17 kilometers without
• 11:16
  anything and then a remainder six or seven kilometers to get here to ledigos to the halfway mark.