DAY 12, Day 5 on The Camino

Further schedule and route adjustments became necessary since we are eight in number. There were NO places with enough beds for us in the next 44 kilometers!! So, we agreed to walk 7 miles to Mombuey, & as advised, catch a 2:00 bus to Lubian (which would get us beds plus take us past some major construction underway for the high speed railway).

The scenery reminded me of my Las Vegas marathon where we were dropped off in the middle of the desert and had to run back amongst little else but tumbleweeds and sage brush. We walked all morning in ruts created by some large vehicle surrounded by grasses in varying shades of bronze, brown, sepia, yellow, beige, dust and taupe.  You get the idea.

In Mombuey we grabbed some seats at a cafe for tortillas, bocadillos and cafe’ con leche and learned that the bus was really at 3:00 – and to Puebla de Sanabria and not Lubian (reportedly a lovely town with enough beds but not past the construction…) When we arrived at the albergue in that most Beautiful town, there were not enough beds so we ended taking two taxis to Lubian anyway. A very charming town with beautiful, ancient buildings and the albergue had a horse, too! Unfortunately, the kitchen in which we made our meal was also home to 8 of the beds and those pilgrims were none too happy that we were Americans arriving in a large group by car! We had to work hard to warm them…