Marathon on the Meseta

 Day 53 - Sahagun

     Because of the long distances between towns on the Meseta and our desire to move on to new landscape, we decided to pull out the stops and go for what I am sure will be the longest day of our Camino.  We walked 25 miles or 40 kilometers which our minds are more familiar with these days.  For breakfast we ate tortillas (Spanish tortillas are like a potato quiche) in our room which we had purchased the night before, and used our last Starbucks powdered coffee in hotel cups.  Then out into the dark morning to start our marathon walk.  

     We start our mornings now pretty bundled up, but shed the layers as the day warms up. The endless agriculture continues to be our constant view.  We have noticed a marked difference between agriculture landscape here compared to the US.  Here there are no houses and farm buildings scattered among the fields.  The farmers all live in the small villages.  They drive their tractors out to their fields which can be miles away.  They keep the machinery in the small towns and sometimes in their garages.  It reminds me of medieval times when peasants lived in the towns for protection, and then went out to the fields during the day.  I am curious whether the current practices here are because of long held traditions or if there are strict zoning laws.

     We made two stops today. One was the first town after ten miles of nothing. Another tortilla and a caramelized banana cake with coffee con leche.  The next stop was after another eight miles.  We stopped at an albergue in a tiny village and found many of our acquaintances settled in for the remainder of the day.  We refueled and had great conversation.  There were two other men named Peter which was a little unusual. One of them was a chef instructor who worked at the Seahawk’s training camp for twenty years.  It was very interesting to hear him describe how Pete Carroll engaged with people. 

     It was hard to pull ourselves away from our new Camino friends and grind on for another seven miles to our destination.  Our private room was booked through booking.com and it did not disappoint.  After cleaning up and resting, we enjoyed pizza and veal steak for a very reasonable price.