Day 21

Tardajos to Hontanas - 22 kms
1 May 2019

Another good day. We set off in the cool but the day soon heated up, as did we. Today was our first introduction to the meseta - the high plateau area that will take us several days to walk across. It may be a high plateau but that doesn't mean that it's all flat - there are still steep inclines and descents after several kilometres of flat. The whole area is covered in green crop. We passed through only one biggish village, Hornillos del Camino, (population 70), the rest of the day was spent walking through seemingly endless cropland.
One thing that dominates a pilgrim's life, apart from eating and sleeping, is keeping clean - ourselves and our clothes. Yesterday when we arrived at Tardajos hot and dusty we raced for the showers. Then we had our washing to do. Every day we wash our smalls and socks and whatever else needs freshening. Where we stayed last night we were told that for €5 we could have our clothes washed and dried so we quickly piled all our things together apart from what we were standing in. After a couple of hours we asked for our washing and we were told it was still being washed. An hour later we asked again only to be told it still wasn't ready. This went on all evening until I started to think it wouldn't be returned. We were actually in bed for the night when there was a knock on our door and there was our washing, still damp, but it was so good to have it returned. Today we went back to washing our clothes by hand again.

The church in Tardajos this morning  - with a stork nest on one corner.

Walking out through the town.

Lilac trees have featured all along our walk. This one is in a garden at Tardajos.

A church in the tiny settlement of Rabé de las Calzadas

...and on we go. We had a long climb up to the plateau  - then we had acres and acres of land and sky.

A short sharp drop took us down to a wide basin of land...

...where the village of Hornillos del Camino was a very welcome spot to stop for refreshments and a rest.

Hornillos del Camino

After that it was a climb back up to a plateau which lasted for 12 kilometres.

Cross of Santiago - St James

This man was a Camino angel - he and his van offering food and drink were very welcome after many kilometres in the hot sun. All was donativo - by donation.

And finally Hontanas came into view

Hermitage of St Brigida - St Bridget of Sweden - on the outskirts of Hontanas

St Brigida

Walking down  into Hontanas

Our albergue for the night.

Hand washing being done

The view from the balcony of our albergue