Tag 18 - Carrion de los Condes nach Moratinos

The morning starts early. I was in a room with a lot of South Koreans and they always get up incredibly early. So I get ready just before 7am and head to a bar. There I had breakfast with Verle from the Netherlands and Tom from the USA. Nothing special in itself, but Tom is carrying double the luggage. His backpack on his shoulders and an accordion strapped to his front, which weighs another 12kg. As we set off, my heavy legs make themselves felt and I walk accordingly slower than the others. The path leads past a beautiful monastery at the edge of town, then along a country road for the first few kilometres until the turnoff onto a dirt road. Yesterday I went to the supermarket and stocked up well because today's stage is 17km without a town or fountain. So a good 4 hours. The information for this section also said that there are only a few shady passages. But that shouldn't be my problem today. Today is the coldest day on the Camino so far. In the town, the cars were frozen and on wooden sections like bridges, you had to be very careful because it was slippery. Even in the sun, it felt no warmer than 5-8 degrees. There was also an ice-cold wind that of course always blew in your face from the front. Ryan and Anton had caught up with me by now and then continued at my pace. The day was filled with jokes, exchanging experiences, fooling around and singing together. For example, playing hide and seek in the rapeseed fields 🤣 Today I also made it halfway. I broke the 400km mark. Tomorrow in Sahagun I will get my first certificate for it. Also, my credential (the pilgrim's passport, in which I have to stamp every day where I have been) is almost full. One more stamp tomorrow, then I'll start the second. When we arrived at the first town, we took a short break for food. There was also an interesting fountain in the town, although it was not switched on because of the low temperatures. We continued on, for what seemed like an eternity, next to the country road. But the path was well shielded from the road. In the next town we wanted to visit the church, on a small hill of course. But it was much more natural that it was closed. The next section went across the fields again until we arrived at the town of Moratinos. Here we stayed at the San Bruno hostel. The room is also very cold and there is no heating. So tonight we will sleep in all our clothes. Later we will have a communal dinner with homemade pasta. I hope it will get rid of the cold in the dormitory. At the entrance to the town it was very interesting that there are several houses on a hill. You can only see the door and further back in the hill the chimneys stick out. Almost like hobbit houses. I'm still thinking about tomorrow because there are two options again, but they only meet again after 32km. So I have to look at the accommodation on both options and then decide.
Cost of the day:
Accommodation 15€ Breakfast 4€ Food on the way 5,50€ Dinner 14€