Pagans on a Pilgrimage

Kim wakes at 3:45am but manages to fall back asleep until 6:30am. Hooray! Fantastic sunrise.    Breakfast at 7:30am of coffee, bread and jam and cookies.  Enough to line the stomach - just. Strangers become acquaintances or potential friends over breakfast. We are nearly the last ones to leave the albergue and it’s nice see the line of pelegrino’s walking up the country road ahead.  Daz walks with Will the other Aussie for a while and Kim walks alone. She likes her own pace, taking in the countryside. The cows are huge and a beautiful golden brown colour. She sees two together, one eating while another is licking it from nose to forehead. Above them a dozen swallows dart around enjoying the morning sunshine.  There are a few kilometres along a busy road, but we soon turn onto another country road. Before long it turns into track and we walk with corn fields to the left and the ocean to our r...

Kim’s awake at 4am again. Albergue doors don’t unlock until 6:30am. Bed yoga and stretches for her and a patient wait. I slept on the top bunk, and woke to find her staring at me, willing me awake.  Nothing open so no coffee or breakfast. Walk the 6km to the ferry from El Puntal to Santoña which is a 600m crossing. We are first to arrive and wait in line for the ferry in an hour. Pretty much everyone from the Albergue shows up for the ferry. It beaches its nose on the sand and some stairs are lowered for us to board. €2 each. Find a cafe for "Desayuno Español" (Spanish  Breakfast) of coffee and a tortilla. Buy some fruit at a small mercardo. Fill up our water at the fountain, put on sunscreen and we head off to.  As we leave the town of Berria we need to decide whether to take the difficult and longer coastal route to Helgueras or the shorter inland road direct to San Miguel de Meruel.  A local on a motorbike sees us we...