Day 37 - Rionegro de Puente to Asturianos (16 miles)

Today I had no need to rush as it was not too long a day and there are plenty of beds at my destination. Others seemed to have different ideas so, when I walked out of the albergue at 7.30am, I was almost the last to leave. I left the village and began a long walk across shrubby fields with a short stretch along motorway thrown in for good measure, the motorway that according to the hospitalera yesterday had sucked passing traffic from Rionegro de Puente and with it the life of the village. After two hours I stopped for coffee at the next village along, caught up with fellow walkers and then pressed slowly on in the company of a young Polish guy.

Before long we were passing through an expansive landscape of white gorse dotted with spindly, lichen encrusted trees and amongst that the collapsed remnants of dry stone wall pens harking back to a previous age and use of this area. It was a landscape that reminded me of New Forest moorland back home. Occasionally the trees gave way to small patches of cleared ground in which villages nestled, villages with only a handful of houses and where the most prominent building was always the small stone church. As the afternoon wore on the balance slowly changed until the trees dominated and the wide gravel track of the Camino wound its way through lichen encrusted woods dotted with patches of white gorse.

Other than the occasional village or stretch of road it was like this until we finally reached the albergue at Asturianos. Set back from the village and integrated into a giant sports hall, it is large, clean and modern. And it has a proper bar which seems to relate to the sports hall since it is frequented by locals and walker alike. Not long after arriving, and after a beer in the bar, I walked back down to the village for lunch in the company of Patrick and two others, the same price as yesterday but nothing whatsoever in comparison. 

It is now 9.30pm and the bar is deserted of pilgrims, although a couple of locals are making good use of its facilities. I guess like yesterday they are asleep and even though it is still light outside I am minded to join them.