Legrono - Azofra - Thursday
I cannot believe that I did not take many photographs today. The journey began with several, maybe four kilometres of walking through a public park. The highlight of which was a real red squirrel. The gardens were well kept, children's play areas, picnic areas, bbq areas, cycle tracks, water fountains (fuente with fresh drinking water) . This gave way to walking next to the motorway that runs from Legrono onwards towards Burgos. This was a good day early on. Navarrette was passed in good time, then looking for water in Ventosa was interesting. Everything was closed, even the houses. It was a ghost town. The medical centre door was open, no one there! There was no running water in the hand basin. A white van - it had to be- drew up and the man starts advertising his vegetables by loudspeaker. No one comes. I walk over and ask him "aqua" "agua". He shakes his head, I show him empty bottle. He fills it from his personal supply, sees I am thirsty, encourages me to drink and he fills it again. I spot a small fish symbol on his bumper. He wants to tell me there is only one Camino, the one to heaven. I do not have time for long conversation in pigeon Spanish / French so we part friends , a blessing given and I thank God for this Evangelical man of God willing to bless me with his water.
11 km later I arrive in Najera with no Albergue open, it is onwards to Azofra. As I discover, the Albergue there that was open last week is now "cerrado". There is a note saying hostel next to church is open. Fortunately the church bell rings so I walk in its general direction and find an ancient refuge built in 1163 for pilgrims just like me. It is small, cold, but has water and a small camp stove. There is electricity too and a supermarket across the street. It is getting dark, he I will be staying.
Fortunately the shop sold coffee sachets so I was able to boil water and make a hot drink. A small meal of fruit, yoghurt, Pringles and fruit juice . Plenty of blankets so sleep was cosy. I was theirs person in a week to stop there. I had to record my presence and passport number in the record book and stamp my own credential.
