Samblismo to La Mesa 28km
Last nights Albergue was excellent. Most impressive was the superb evening meal and the wonderful breakfast that included freshly baked bread. He could add to his income by selling sandwiches for the next day (and bread making courses)! The Albergue is also situated ideally as it’s on the Pola route and the hospitalas path is less the 100m straight out the door. After the great breakfast I left at 0815 and headed up the hospitalas route. There was still some mist but it looked like it would clear quite quickly. The walk on this route is not at all difficult and it could not have been marked better if someone had drawn a yellow line along the whole way. The mist did clear before the first peak and the views were lovely. Unfortunately, the mist dropped down again after that and visibility dropped to 50m or so at some times. During one of these times I heard suddenly something running quickly from behind towards me. This made my heart beat a little faster. Turned out it was a dog that had followed another couple into the Albergue last night. He stayed with me for about 10 km and obviously knew the camino well. It was a lovely walk overall with very little time on road and a great stretch through a forest of Scots pine towards the end. Just like the previous day the mist cleared away about 40 mins before the end of the walk and now it’s a clear blue sky. I had expected it to be 30km to here but it was a little shorter and a lot shorter than my preference. However, this is a wonderful Albergue with a washing machine and dryer so it’s a great opportunity to get properly clean clothes again. Also the next opportunities to stop are 11km and then another 5km away and although it would have been doable all it would achieve is to make tomorrow shorter as the choices thereafter are limited. Did I mention there is a pool here as well? Pity it’s a little chilly. Probably off to Fonsagrada tomorrow.