Day 23 - Tactical day between heat, waiting, and coordination.

26 June

Day notes

Title

Tactical day between heat, waiting, and coordination.

Where I was / stage

Castrojeriz / Itero de la Vega / Itero del Castillo area, with support at Ermita de San Nicolás de Puente Fitero.

Key scene

I started walking around 5:15 to take advantage of the cool air. About three hours later, at the gates of Castrojeriz, I met a very particular pilgrim: he was doing the Camino with his dog, and the dog also had its own little backpack. We exchanged a few words and he told me he also came from very far away, with a long route already behind him.

I kept walking trying to take all the best of the morning: open fields, trails, calm, and the crunching of stones under the boots. It is a “ringtone” I love: when you enter into resonance with these sensory details, fatigue moves into the background.

Around noon I arrived in Itero de la Vega: I sat at a table, drank two cold beers, and ate something while organizing logistics, distances, and accommodations for the following days.

For that day I had already decided to stop at Ermita de San Nicolás de Puente Fitero, an albergue run by the community of pilgrims from Perugia. It is a choice you make only if you really want it: the hermitage is still on the route (you do that climb anyway), but it is not in the village. So when you arrive there you have two options: either you stop immediately and stay there the whole time (but you must already have food with you), or you go on to the next village, Itero de la Vega, which is about 2 km away, and then come back. That is exactly the point: once in Itero, it would be more natural to sleep there without returning, while by going back to the hermitage those 2 km immediately become 4, and then the day after you do them again forward. On such hard days, 4 extra km are definitely felt, and if you do not dose your energy well you risk paying for it.

In addition, I had arrived very early (around 10:00), so it also meant stopping already in the middle of the day. But it was a precise decision: in the mesetas, up to León, I had decided to walk only in the morning and stop no later than 10/11, with 12:00 maximum only in extreme cases; then full rest in the afternoon.

At the hermitage there is no electricity, so I used the time well: laundry and drying in the sun. Behind it there is a structure with washbasins and showers, and a relaxing grass area with lines where you can hang clothes. At the end of the day the clothes were already dry and ready.

Around 20:00 dinner was served, and that too was a special experience: they do foot washing and, at the end of dinner, they invite pilgrims to sing. I did not sing, but it was nice. With me there were also other people I had already met in previous days in San Bol and in the albergue of the previous day.

While chatting a bit with the hospitalero, the topic of Maddalena also came up, because she had slept there a few days earlier. He did not know that we knew each other and told me about this Italian girl named Maddalena who was happily humming because she had just received the news that at the end of the year she would go to America for six months. Laughing, he also made the joke: “I washed Maddalena's feet” (clear religious reference). Then I wrote to her, she confirmed it was really her, and asked me to greet him.

In the Italian group, Antonella had asked the others whether they had already taken the halfway Camino card. I got curious and asked where to get it: they answered in Sahagún. But they were already much farther ahead than me. From that moment I gave myself a new mission: arrive in Sahagún and take that halfway card too.

Meanwhile I kept coordinating via chat with Giselle and Catherine to organize the night strategy for the next day: meetup farther ahead, long break, dinner, and then evening departure again.