After spending the night in the municipal albergue in Pajares, I bid farewell to Martin, who I never saw again. My albergue for the night of my 4th day on the Camino del Salvador was not a long walk, so everyone else would continue past where I was headed.
Irish John continued to be in bad shape and expressed an interest in staying another night to recover. After the two Australians headed out, I moved all of my gear from my room (which Martin and I had shared with John) to the women's room. I didn't want to disturb John while packing. I wasn't in any hurry to head out because I has a short day, and I ran into the volunteers who maintain the albergue. I let them know that I was just going, because they didn't seem happy to see me. When I left, they were explaining to John that it would not be possible to stay another night.
Skipping forward, I was surprised to see John again later that day when I was relaxing outside my albergue with the owner. The albergue owner told John that there was no vacancy that night and John would have to keep moving. Strange, because I was only one of two people who ended up staying there that night! At the time, I had already arrived and unpacked, and realized that I left a pair of pants at the previous albergue. Whe I told John this, he said he had seen them - but since they were in the women's room, he thought they were owned by the Australians! The owner suggested I text the folks maintaining that albergue so they could give the pants to someone staying there that night. Maybe we would encounter them up the Camino. And we did! I was able to get my second pair of pants back.
My route for the day was somewhat circuitous because I had time to kill, and I added to it by taking the wrong route twice. I started out by retracing some of my steps the day before, as the route splits shortly after the Mirador I ate at. I would go back to that split and hike the other branch of the Camino to my albergue. Below is a photo I took of Pajares, where I stayed, looking back from the Camino.
It followed a ridge down into a valley where I followed a paved road for a while.
My day was short, with only a couple of villages and many old farm roads. Other than when in the villages I passed through, I did not see another soul. I saw no pilgrims during my entire walk that day.
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I hiked to the small village of Llanos de Someron and stayed at the Albergue Cascoxu. I had an excellent dinner there, and the facilities were great. They also left a continental breakfast in the morning.
While I was sad to have left my group that I'd been hiking with for the past several days, taking a short day allowed me to meet Lies, a Flemish woman who now lives in southern France. She was out hiking both the Camino del Salvador and the Camino Primitivo. She had been with the group hiking one day behind me, and helped me get my pants back when we later saw some folks from that group. Because she had a longer hike, she arrived later and we were both assigned beds in the same room. She saw a larger bed in the next room and overruled her assignment to sleep there. I admired that!
Lies and I were the only people staying at the albergue that night. We had dinner together, and walked together often over the next few days. She was a wonderful friend and her knowlege of multiple languages was most helpful to me as she called ahead for reservations for one night later in our journey.
So, I consider it to be a blessing that I had that low mileage day! These kind of interactions are what makes a Camino journey special. Although I often hike solo back home, it is nice to connect with others on the same route, especially if they are from another part of the world (and speak English).
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