375 km to Santiago de Compostela
It was supposed to be an easy walk. The Castilian plateau is fairly flat and while we had a slight constant climb we figured it would be OK. It was chilly when we left around 7 am; around 0 C. We started walking pretty fast but soon a headwind started.
The trail is good, of dirt, well maintained with a slight slope. But the weather was rotten and it got worse and worse. By 9 am we had a pretty strong head wind. Now reading the weather reports we see we had gusts of up to 80 km/hour. An hour later hail started. Small pellets like sand, pretty hard on the face. The wind kept blowing my hood off and the backpack covers. An hour later a very cold hard rain hit us - right on the face. We walked the last couple of kilometres with a young German and a middle age Frenchman.
We were very tired, cold and wet when we finally arrived to El Burgo Ranero. Our friends continued but we decided we could not go any farther. We found a hostel which had a room and a meal and that was the day for us.
By the pedometer we walked about 20 km in 6 hours, very fast for us. I guess we were in a hurry to find shelter. Without a doubt this has been the hardest walk so far.
When we woke up from our siesta and looked out the window the hail was coming hard and flying almost horizontal because of the wind. We are spending the rest of the day indoors.
My wife to informs me than despite the two days off this week we have walked 125 km.
I asked the hostess what is a Burgo, after all it is the name of the town, she did not know but Google informed me that in the middle ages a Burgo was a fortification or a castle. Later it was applied to towns that grew around the fort. Thus el Burgo Ranero is the castle where the frogs are.
Today we celebrate the Annunciation, so we can repeat the greeting of the archangel St.Gabriel: Hail Mary full of grace.
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