Today we walked 16.5 miles (26.6 km) in 9 hours with breaks.

We started the morning bright and early, and after a brief stop at the panadería (bakery), we were on the path by 7:30am. The day’s walk started with a long 10.6 mile (17 km) slog down a straight gravel road that always seemed to end at the horizon no matter how far we walked. Usually we go through towns about every hour or so but this lasted four and a half hours with only a few rest areas that were mercifully setup for the pilgrims. It’s actually one of the longest stretches between towns on the Camino.

Finally we reached the little town of Calzadilla (pop. 54) and had lunch at a cafe doing a booming business with the pilgrims, especially since it was the only restaurant in town and the first we’d seen all day.

We had two more towns and another few hours to go before we made it to Terradillos, where we are now. We all four fell on the beds and so far nobody’s moved yet. I’m only doing the blog post at the moment because my index finger is one of the few parts of my body that doesn’t hurt. :-)

This town was once home to a 13th century church belonging to the Knights Templar, a medieval military group responsible for protecting pilgrims. Hence the full name of the town, Terradillos de los Templarios, meaning “small Templar terraces”.

And also… we’ve now made it to the half way point of the Camino Francés, from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. 242 miles and 390 km! Kathey and I have also now doubled our mileage from last year, with several days left to walk this year.

Unfortunately the internet connection isn’t good enough to upload photos today, so I’ll have to add them to tomorrow’s post. Imagine flat horizons and endless fields of multi-colored wheat. :-)