To Tabara

The albergue in Tabara is one of those "traditional" albergues. The pilgrims will eat supper together tonight at 8 pm. It will be a dinner prepared by the hospitalero.  At dinner we will decide as a group when the music will come on in the morning. None of this 6:00, 6:20, 6:45, etc., etc. alarm clock business. It's a pretty 'gut' place.

Only a few folks here tonight, and none of us can translate for each other, so my understanding of the Spanish ànd Italian conversations will be limited, and T. will be clueless.

Today is where I turned west. It is now new territory for me. Several things made it tough. More than half of the stage is along the N-631 highway. There is a gravel shoulder to walk on for much of the distance, but there are also many stretches of narrow, guardrailed asphalt. And a lot of traffic. The off/on rain also meant several quick stops for raingear, too.

The toughest part of today was saying goodbye to Nina. An 18 year old with spunk. We cooked together again last evening, sharing our vegetarian pasta with Pait, the Korean. Alan and Ann would be pleased. We walked together for the first hour this morning, then I went west as she continued north to Granja. I now think of her as the daughter I never had, or more like my daughter from a parallel universe, the one where my ancestors never came to America but stayed in Germany, in which I too say Yuge when telling about something big. Thank you for the goodbye hug, I know you do not give those away easily.

Photos: The famous church above the lake near Montamarta at dawn, turning west, I saw lots of deer tracks on the dirt road through these woods, and the hospitalero with our evening meal, Spanish paella.

Weather: The thermometer was stuck at 50F all day with 4 or 5 light showers. Enough moisture to gunk up the boots on the clay country road in the afternoon.
Distance: 28 km
Route: See text above. At the small town about 8 km before Tabara, I took the country road that is about 300 meters north of the N-631. It leads right into Tabara.
Town: Saving my energy for tomorrow, I didn't leave the albergue (which doesn't have wifi, so I'll need to upload this later).