An Alternative Route

Camino. Chapter 20

Camino de Santiago - Day 18: Ledigos to Calzadilla de Hermanillos

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With the Mountains-to-Sea Trail capturing my attention for the past two years, I have neglected to finish my Camino adventure—and for that I apologize. It just has been more than I could handle to hike, write, and post about two different thru-hikes at the same time. The winter season now upon me and with recovering from prostate cancer, I am now catching up on my Camino hike across Spain with my intrepid sister-in-law—an incredible experience that I would wholeheartedly recommend to any pilgrim-wannabees. The following story picks up where the last installment left off. If you’d like to start at the beginning, click here.

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An Alternative Route into the Meseta

Another tough day - this one earning its place in this adventure as truly representative of the Meseta. Starting early, we were soon walking in that open, almost featureless Meseta landscape. I have to admit, to me, this terrain is glorious, and as an East Coast boy, I can’t get enough of the long vistas and endless skies that stretch forever.

We walk for over 12 km (7 1/2 miles) on the main Camino route across the Meseta through several small towns that are totally quiet and empty of their citizenry until we reach the large town of Sahagun.

Sahagun is a prosperous town, awash in pilgrim statues and art, showcasing its importance as an “official” halfway site for the Camino. It is also a town with significant rail lines highlighting its importance as a hub for moving grain, people, and other goods across the region. Almost everyone in our “bubble” of hikers agrees that the actual halfway point occurred earlier in the walk between yesterday and today, but still we love getting a proclamation at the visitors center near the middle of town (3 Euros) which announces to those interested of our great pilgrimage achievement. A casual lunch in a local plaza with friends from the Camino gives us a chance to rest as well as celebrate our success with each other.

Still, Marlene, my sister-in-law, and I know the afternoon will include a tough alternative route that just the two of us plan to walk. Our route will leave the designated trail which stays along the main road, and walk instead on backroads through the Meseta farmland to Calzadilla de Los Hermanillos. We celebrate with our Camino friends a meal of orange soda and sandwiches, but we don’t linger in Sahagun. Five km later, we leave the main Camino route and take the longer and more scenic route into the country.

To our surprise, the next 9 km (5 1/2 miles) quickly deteriorates and makes us reconsider our decision. The long rocky road between farms, beaten up by tractors and farm equipment traveling to endless fields now plowed over, proves to be hell on my already sore and painful feet, and with a boiling afternoon sun bearing down on us as we walk, the going becomes a “slog” of endurance.

Adding to the misery are hundreds of black flies swarming around us, trying to land on our faces and arms. This, then, is the “real” Meseta giving us the “reality check” we must have asked for by taking this route - here is what the Meseta offers to everyone who work or walk across this land.

By the time we arrive at our hostel, we had lost all comprehension of why taking this route was so important. We feel like we are stuck in a massive and endless West Texas landscape with no escape and no recourse but to see it through the next day- when we will hike onward to rejoin the main Camino trail. The few pilgrims who pull into the hostel behind us through the late afternoon, feel equally that we have walked through hell. Camino or not, those who have chosen to join us in Calzadilla de Los Hermanillos that evening, finally understand the true hostile nature of the Meseta and the gritty toughness of the people who live here.