The Endless Road

Our first 6 km in the moonlight was wonderful. After breakfast at a crowded bar, we began the 18km to Calzadilla. The guidebook warned that it was a long 18km without services or villages. There was hope that at the 10km mark there would be a seasonal snack stand, but when we finally got there it had closed 5 minutes before. So, we sat in the sun on a hard cement bench to eat our fruit and nuts. It was a very long, straight, dusty, hot road that went on and on and on without turning or much on the sides to look at except plowed dirt fields. The last 4km seemed to last forever. Finally we saw a tower in the distance off to the right and we were excited that there was hope of an ending before too long. As we got closer, we could tell that the tower was only accompanied by hay stacks, not a town. We almost despaired, but then passed by a woman who said that she heard that the town wasn't visible until the last moment. Meanwhile, we could hear the Lithuanians gaining on us from behind. Their chanting started to unnerve us. We laughed as we said, "the Lithuanians are coming, the Lithuanians are coming," knowing that we had no energy to move out of the way or walk any faster. The town did appear all of a sudden and we gave a whoop of joy. Unfortunately, it isn't much to look at. We had a little trouble finding our Albergue because the name of it wasn't written anywhere. Eventually we got it sorted out and have connected with our camino friends here. The whole town is run down. There is a little pool outside and a Danish guy brought some German beer from the mini mart, so all is well.