What gets left behind....

And what gets picked up along the road? Here, in Carrion de los Condes tonight I have rejoined the crowds it appears. When I arrived (stopping into the Santa Clara church, pictured at the right here) most of the Alberges were full, but I found a spot in the nunnery (Yes, Hamlet's line flashes to mind once more!). No surprise this town is packed, as this is the last stop for over 16kms, and it feels quite civilized (as in I am not on dial up today)!

I walked 34 to get here this morning and afternoon, leaving behind me at the crack of dawn in a lovely mist as the sun was just rising, the French troupe I had hooked onto. Unfortunately they needed to slow down for a friend who had joined them and was struggling, especially after that climb up the mountain outside Castrojeriz (see the new pic I added to the previous post, it is looking back from the peak of the mountain between Castrojeriz and Itero where we stopped last night, and the one here at the left is one looking then forward after crossing over a plateau at the top of that little peak whose name I have already forgotten, though it is taken at a very different season--thus all of this green hay is currently golden yellow, and cut often in wonderful wave-like patterns over the fields. It is yellow and brown as I head through it).

Today, along the way, breakfasting outside a little bar in Fromista, I met up with some other pilgrims--2 from Poland, one Germany and one from Spain. We walked the rest of the morning together, then had a lovely pause for over an hour in the town just before this one where we met up with a pilgrim from Holland (who is carrying a baby oak tree with him, either to Santiago or back home from the Camino) . We did the last, hot six kms in the sun along the route departemental through the dry, hot, still golden mesa, seeing the village of Carrion emerge massively before us at around 3kms away. Tomorrow, it is really out into the wilds again, back along trails like the one here pictured at the right--much more representative of the dryness I am seeing here! It is another of Andy's photos, from a site I found when he did the Camino, and this one shows part of tomorrow's trek. I hope he will forgive my using his pics until I can replace things with my own in the nearish future, so do check back in case I manage a few of my own images soon!