Day 4 - Camino de Santiago

We awoke late on our fourth day, after having the good intention of departing town at 5am. We couldn't resist the opportunity to sleep later and have breakfast before starting our walk for the day, so instead rose at 7am, ate breakfast, and were on the Camino by 8am.

The town of Cásteojeríz wraps around the base of a great hill, and our first 2 kilometers were around the base of the hill. We then departed town through sunflower fields, walking a short way on an old Roman Road before crossing a stream via an old railway bridge and arriving at the Alto de Mostelares.

Our biggest challenge in the hike this far has been climbing this large hill just outside of Cástrojeríz. With a 12% unforgiving grade that shoots what seems like directly up the 460 meter climb, by the time you reach the height of the top, you've earned the view. We practiced short alpine steps, rescue breaths, and rest-steps to help our bodies acclimate!(Many thanks to Dan's alpinist training!)

The views from the height were beautiful!

We continued our walk into the afternoon along a high altitude plateau (Meseta), on a day where it seemed like you could just reach up and touch the clouds.

View of Sunflower field. (Someone plucked out 22 from one of the sunflowers- can you see it?)

After a short while we stopped for a much needed break at a picnic area and ran into some pilgrims we had been on the same pace with for a few days. We shared stories with Tina and Gon, giving them each a bracelet as well before pushing forward toward our final destination of Itero de la Vega, and crossing the Taiga river which we walked along on our way into town.

Our friends Tina and Gon

We stayed the evening in another pilgrim donativo albergue, and shared dinner with a lively group who had us laughing half of the meal. All in all we walked around 12 kilometers today, but after the steep climb and heat of the day we were spent!