Day 8 – Sandol

Early start out in a thunderstorm this morning.  Rain gear on.  Trudge through thick clay mud.

Half hour later, sun is out, rain gear too hot, comes off.   

The pilgrimage is thick still. 

By 10:30 we come to the “Fuentes de Vino”.   Partaking is obligatory if you are a true pilgrim. 

It’s free vinto tinto (wine red) on the left and water on the right.

I have no cup but a generous Frenchman offers me his tin cup so I drink a breakfast vino tinto and rinse the cup in the agua spout and return it. 

A little farther on I stopped at a little cafe doing a land office business in cappuccino.

This looked like a quaint fixer-upper.  It has a small fenced garden and no power that I can see. 

I don’t know what to make of these old structures.  Many masons spent their careers building these impressive structures. 

But now they are mostly ruins. 

The day wears on, but I’m determined to put some kilometers between me and where I started. 

And there’s a philosophy that the alburgues outside of the larger towns are more personable and less crowded. 
I end up, after 33km, in this little towns only offering.  And I’m not too  choosie now.

I’m getting comfortable starting out  without a specific stopping point in mind and relying on luck or good karma to find a bed at night.  This is the traditional way.  The saying goes “The Camino provides”.    Or,  “Man plans and God smiles”

-jgp