nbjtours

Day Three

Astorga to Sahagun

82.5 miles 3589 ft climbed

The title of this blog changed as I started to write it this evening just before ten o’clock as an incessant cuckoo started up his two tone call. We have always had history with the Cuckoo dating back to our first Iberian trip in 2016 when we heard it almost every day. That’s why they feature on the Nbjtours logo. As historic readers may know, Nick became allergic to the call and demanded the extermination of the Cuckoo as a species as they are so cruel. We are concerned he may be kept awake all night by the tormenting call and we will need to find another reader tomorrow morning for the audible version of the blog. Nick explained that perhaps it was not a cuckoo but a robin with a sore throat!!

Today started with a short ride into the centre of Astorga to see the magnificent cathedral and the Gaudi designed episcopal palace. We ended up chatting to a Japanese-Brazilian woman who lives in Liverpool who was in charge of a dozen or so Brazilians doing the Camino walk. She was not looking forward to her day’s walking it is fair to say.

Leaving Astorga we joined the Camino route proper to begin with, running off the tarmac road, firstly scaling this triple decker bike ramp bridge over the railway before having a short but very steep climb on cobbles up an escarpment to leave the town behind.

Using the official Camino route running alongside the main road saw us mostly on the old road, although with not too much traffic we decided to go onto the main road running more quickly on the hard shoulder.

Running along smaller roads we passed through little agricultural villages that reminded us of the backwaters of France before we came across Nigel and Monica set up for coffee in the middle of Mozondiga, one of them. As ever our croissants and coffee was waiting.

What was interesting about some of these local towns was the underground houses (Chozas) that were set into earth ridges. Whilst some were abandoned others clearly were still lived in. The benefit being the cooler temperature underground away from the heat of the sun. Whilst it stayed dry and hot all day luckily there was some cloud cover so the mercury only got to 30 degrees.

Our next leg of today’s ride was the most enjoyable and had three main elements. Firstly we rode along the rough Camino paths surrounded by endless fields of the most magnificent flowers. There were honestly too many to choose from with pinks, yellows, blues and whites predominating. This accompanied by the wonderful smell of broom which was flowering everywhere.

This slowed our ride down as we had to stop to enjoy the flowers but we did eventually get to the outskirts of the biggest town on our ride today , Leon. Although we had feared it would be difficult to get into, it the truth was the opposite as the traffic remained light and we were able to get to the historical centre easily and cycle round the pedestrianised streets taking in the sights. We even managed to get our credencials stamped.

Leaving Leon we followed the Camino route but using the main road. This is where I made a schoolboy error. Having marked up the route on a map I failed to update it when I changed the satnav routing so got Nigel to wait for us off our programmed route.

Whilst we knew where to find where Nigel and Monica were waiting for us the problem was that in asking Google maps for a reroute it then took us on so called streets of earth and stone slowing our progress further.

Often the paths ran alongside irrigation gullies and it was most impressive to see how much attention and money was invested into watering the crops. There was simply nothing to work out where we were as the landscape was devoid of any remarkable feature so we had to rely on careful following of the phone directions across endless fields which finally got us out of the fields and onto and tarmac road.

Poor Nigel and Monica had been waiting the best part of two and a half hours for our arrival for lunch which was had again after 3.30.

Having taken more care on identifying our next stopping place we left just after 4 not realising this would be the last leg of the day.

Sometimes a leg just gets you from a to b and this was just it. A straight road with no traffic and not much to see It was not hard cycling as there were few hills but it was boring. So although when we got to Sahagun there was still 25 miles to go it was agreed that as it was already 6.30 and the last leg would not be fun we all piled into the camper to go the the campsite in Carrion de los Condes where Nigel conjured up his Thai Chicken Jamie one pot special accompanied by Monica’s coleslaw which was swiftly devoured by one and all.

Today saw Chris take over the pilgrimometer and he only managed 158 so way below Nicks target of 189-210. We expect this number will reduce the further we get from Santiago.

On our arrival at the campsite Dom thought he’d better check his running legs were still working ready for the 75km run in Le Puy. He ran up into the town and did some laps of the castle, although he explained that a pair of Bloodhounds took too much interest in his running causing him to jump up onto a bench until the owner took control.

As I finish this blog at almost 11.30 I can still hear the Cuckoo singing out strongly. I wonder if Nick is sleeping soundly ?