Breakfast was at 0700, but due to the paranoia surrounding getting a bed at the next town, most people were gone before first light. The only accommodation in Santa Marta de Tera is the municipal albergue, and depending on which guidebook you travel with, it has somewhere between 10 and 16 beds (12 is the correct answer). As there were 9 of us in Tabara, and one additional peregrino in a different accommodation in town, there was enough anxiety to make it feel like a race!
We were the second to last to leave at 0720. The Korean couple had left at 0515, so it was not surprising to find them cooking a meal at 1145 in the Santa Marta albergue. We’re increasingly becoming the acknowledged camino pros, having advised everyone to buy food yesterday because on Sunday nothing was going to be available for purchase, and despite the assurances of Jose the hopitalero, the one restaurant in Santa Marta is known to have unreliable hours (it was closed!)
We also had the advantage of Google maps with the Camino path overlaid,  so a couple of routing hacks shaved more than 2 km off the day (doesn’t sound like much unless it’s raining and you’re packing a Sunday’s worth of food!) We did manage to find the only coffee stop en-route, which was a great reviver. The weather wasn’t terrible, being mostly low wet cloud, but there were enough showers to keep the ponchos deployed. The scenery was undulating, but with widespread evidence of the forest fires this area suffered through in 2022.
We won the bronze in the Santa Marta albergue race – despite the long coffee stop, but likely aided by the Google routing hack. The albergue is very new and comfortable, and not quite full (some must have stayed in the previous town). It’s been pouring rain since not long after we arrived, and there being no cellular data signal, it’s was a relaxing afternoon of reading and cribbage (currently Susan ahead 4 games to 1😕).
2saunter 