Day 22 – Villalacazar de Sirga to Terradillos de los Templarios

Walked: 5.2 mi. Camino2025: 118 mi.

As in recent Caminos, this morning we rode a taxi to a small village west of Carrion de los Condes. This allowed us to avoid a stretch of 10 miles or so, without services, little or no shade and uninteresting terrain and scenery. Walking it again would not add to our Camino experiences, so we skipped it.

It began to rain just as the taxi dropped us off at the edge of Calzadilla de la Cueza
The light rain only lasted a few minutes allowing us to remove our ponchos for the rest of today’s walk.
Today’s walk paralleled the N-120 national highway. Only a handful of cars passed by and we saw fewer bikes and pilgrims.
From past experience, for this 2 mile section of today’s walk, the dirt path unnecessarily goes up and down while the paved road has a gradual incline, has a wide shoulder and the auto/truck traffic is minuscule. So we walked most of the way on the shoulder not the dirt path.
We got back on the dirt path just before Ledigos. The path was naturally decorated with wildflowers.
The Camino path maneuvered around a sharp turn in the paved road and we followed.
More flowers. This variety of wildflower is not only a vibrant yellow but it has a delightful fragrance.
We crossed the road and walked into Ledigos.
Walking into Ledigos (pop. 74) we saw this sign, indicating we were near the halfway point to Santiago.
We stopped at Bar/Albergue La Morena for breakfast.
Our cafe con leche was also a work of art!
The beautiful yellow wildflowers formed a wall between us and the paved road for most of the remaining 2 mile walk to Terradillos de los Templarios.

Blogger’s note:

I looked up the yellow species and determined it is called “Spanish Broom”.

Close up of Spanish Bloom

The broom is a small wild shrub that reveals golden yellow flowers… as fragrant as they are poisonous! (TOXIC to humans and pets!!) The plant has hallucinogenic properties that feed many legends. In perfumery, a broom absolute is extracted with deliciously bitter and honeyed notes.  This delicate material also evokes the scent of orange blossom, with undertones of tobacco and lime.

Albergue Los Templarios
Having arrived too early for the noon check-in, we made ourselves comfortable, on the front porch until 11:45, when Nuria, one of the owners recognized us (this is our 4 consecutive visit) and invited us in!

We love the staff of Los Templarios. Last year we caught a 24 hr GI virus that was running through the Camino. Jim got it first and we thought it might be food poisoning from two days earlier. Linda got sick when we were here. We asked Nuria if we could stay until noon the next day, well past the 8:30 checkout. She said no problem, explained the Camino and the school children were all catching it and she called a taxi to take us to our next destination as Linda needed to rest and not walk. She was genuinely concerned for us and went the extra mile to help.

Today when we arrived, our plan was to wash all our clothing, but rain and no sun was in the forecast. Nuria gave us a small basket and said to put our dirty clothes in it and she would take care if it.

When Jim stopped by the reception before dinner to check on the clothes, Nuria handed him the basket, that had been transformed into clean, dry, nicely folded clothing. And she would not allow Jim to pay for it! This is one of several accommodations on the Camino Frances that treats us like family and makes us want to return year after year.

Our wet, dirty clothes transformed into clean, dry, folded garments by our gracious host.
Linda opted for an ensalada mixta only for dinner. Jim also had the salad but added Carne Guisada, a slow cooked, tasty beef in gravy. A nice local wine complimented our meal which topped off a delightful day on the Camino.

We settled our bill said our goodbyes to Nuria and retired to our room for the evening.

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