Stage 30 - Zamora to Montamarta (21.2km): 28/09/2014 07:50
 |
| Arriving in Montamarta - too late for Sunday Mass which has just finished |
Breakfast was prepared for 7:00am by the
two volunteer hospitaleras, Marie and Serenella, but it still took me until
7.50am to get out the door. The breakfast was necessary as we had been too busy
sightseeing the previous day to find a supermercado, which doesn't have to be
super to carry the title. We would refer to some of them as corner shops.
It was considerably warmer this morning
than on previous mornings. Rain jackets were not required and the fleeces came
off before 10:00am. On the way out of Zamora we saw more impressive buildings
which we failed to visit yesterday. We faced a gentle uphill climb until we
left the city and after that it was up and down for much of the way although
none of hills presented a problem.
A number of peregrinos were leaving the
albergue around the same time so we weren't entirely alone in the early part of
the journey. Later, Andrea from Italy caught up with us. He had a long day
yesterday and a late night and so had a bit if a lie-in today. We chatted with
Andrea for the final two hours of today's stage. That shortened the journey. He
is a musician (trumpeter, mostly jazz) from Barga, many of whose emigrants
headed for Glasgow. There is constant movement between the two cities with some
coming back to their home place, and the next generation regular visitors. Some
Scots people have also settled in Barga and the city boasts a Celtic
supporters' club. Andre told me that the die-hards will still back Celtic even
when they are playing an Italian team.
Probably of more importance to some readers
of this, is Andrea's link to Paolo Nutini. Paolo's family are from Barga and he
is a regular visitor. Both being musicians, Andre and Paolo generally meet on
these visits.
We have been reading about diversions to
the Camino as a result of work to extend the AVE high speed rail system. We
hadn't expected to be affected until tomorrow but today we were diverted over a
state-of-the-art bridge carrying dirt track. It was only when were on the
bridge that we could see that everything was in place except the track. We
should have succumbed to the temptation of taking a shortcut and saving perhaps
a kilometre. When we reached the other side it was obvious that others had
taken that option.
As I said earlier, the albergue here is
closed. We had heard reports to that effect but thought we should check it. I
left Pauline sitting beside the Camino with the backpacks while I followed the
albergue signs, not thinking that I would have a wasted a round trip of 1km.
Our next port of call was a bar for a bite to eat but Montamarta is one of
those long villages that seems to go on forever and the bar, restaurant, church
and town hall were all at the far end. In the bar we learned that one of the
casa rurals was full but there was space in the other. We had go back some
distance to find it. We have a room to ourselves and two other Peregrinos are also
staying here, Andrea, and Manuel from the US.
If you are reading the map, we had walked
just over a kilometre when I started "My Tracks".
553km
completed according to Googles "My Tracks", 348km to go, but I expect
it will be more like 378km.
 |
| We followed the signs and took a long detour to cross this bridge |
 |
| At the top of the bridge we discovered that the rail track had yet to be laid and we could have walked across it. |
Comments
Post a Comment