Day 11: Belorado to Agés

Day 11: 16 Oct 2024

Distance (kms): 27.6

Elevation gain / loss (m): 508 / 312

It was a gray day when I started from Belorado and the rain held-up while I made it to ‎⁨Tosantos⁩ and Villambistia.




The next town was ‎⁨Espinosa del Camino⁩, where someone was unhappy with 'turigrinos'!


By the time I got to ‎⁨Villafranca Montes de Oca⁩, it was raining so hard that I decide to take a break from the rain and also get breakfast.


The next several kilometers, ran through a fairly remote oak forest that was also a steep up-hill climb.



It is said that in medieval times, bandits would hide in these forests and rob pilgrims. There was a Spanish Civil War memorial erected in along the Camino here:


The silver plaque on the memorial reads:

Quiero escarbar la tierra con los dientes, 
quiero apartar la tierra parte a parte 
a dentelladas secas y calientes.

I want to scrape at the earth with my teeth,
I want to split the earth apart bit by bit
with dry, hot bites.

(From Elegía a Ramón Sijé by Miguel Hernández - https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elegía_a_Ramón_Sijé. An elegy mourning the loss of Hernández's friend.)

Finally reached the albergue in Agés. It was a very nice arrangement with 4 beds to a room (with separate bathroom). I shared the room with a man from Australia who has walked almost 40 kms to get to Agés and a young woman from Netherlands who was returning home the next day since she was coming to the end of her vacation. 


Met my friends from Montana at a small (even by Camino standards) bar called Alquimista. We were the only bar and dinner guess that night. We had a dinner of vegetable soup and pork and rice.



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