Day 10: Alvorge 

I headed off to a brief dark night at around 4:45. It looks like my preaching of yesterday was less than effective since everyone remained sleeping. Despite the weather forecast the Italians showed me, which estimated 18°C in the morning and 42°C during the day.

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The Way passes through a few villages with the usual barf-barf  morning  chorus. One chorus member ran out to personally wish me a good morning…  than changed his quickly.

After another few villages the path leads to Ansiao,  a larger town.  This is a northern crossroad where Caminho de Santiago and Caminho de Fatima split. The surrounding countryside is a pure deja vu experience of Inland Dalmatia…  dry stone walls,  stone barns,  olive groves.

I reached Alvorge around 11 am…  planning a short break before continuing for another 6 km to Rabancal. But the plan completely collapsed due to a single mistake…  I took a seat…  and after sitting down …  getting up,  let alone continuing to walk,  proved to be a …  challenge. The bar owner had little difficulty in persuading me to stay at the local church albergue.

He literally drew me a picture with the location of the church and the albergue before giving me the key. There is the church…  but by the time I got there I completely forgot what the guy drew. So I went on trying the key on each door that I saw … without success.  Fortunately another local came by and pointed the albergue nearby…  oh look…  there is also a sign.

At the albergue,  a mother and son form a cleaning crew for the day.  The have the routine down pat and are quickly done.

Around 14 h I am joined by Nino and Rosana,  Jorge and Ruta.  The albergue has no air conditioning but a slight breeze makes it bearable…  once you step outside it feels like inside of an oven. I really can’t figure out the people suffering through the heat. Than again I seem to recall a few occasions I suffered for ignoring sound advice…  quite a few times actually.

I went back to the bar for a lunch with Jorge and Ruta and quickly annihilated a very good meal. I learned Ruta is studying for her PhD on mathematics … blondes sure get stereotyped incorrectly.  Afterwards we went looking for a supermarket.  Jorge asked a group of locals drinking beer and they all pointed the way…  in a synchronised move that would impress a ballet choreographer.

That was day no.  10.