I missed posting yesterday so you have two days' activities to read (Monday comes before Sunday though to follow the sequence of archiving).

Monday 19th April 2010 (Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Belorado - total walked to date 169.12km)
It was time to say goodbye to our rather cute abode at Santo Domingo - we had polka dotted bed linen!  Since we had only 23.4km for today, we gave ourselves a little treat with a lie-in.  We left at 9.20am after a quick breakfast of coffee/juice and pastries.  Today we passed through an unusual number of villages - Granon, Redicilla del Camino, Castildelgardo, Vilora de Rioja and Villamayor del Rio.  Today we also left the La Rioja region and entered Castilla Y Leon.  Goodbye vineyards!  With so many villages, we also made more stops (for a drink of our favourite Kas pops or to pop into the Churches to say a quick prayer).  Today was filled with totally new experiences.  One was trekking through mud.  After yesterday's rainfall, a large section of the dirt tracks turned to mud.  As you can imagine, our shoes became heavier and heavier from the mud that was collected on our soles.  Not a good feeling I can assure you.  Lunch was another new experience.  We couldn't find a restaurant that was open so we promptly sat ourselves down when we found a clearing by the road and out came whatever we had in our backpacks.  Not a lot though - a banana, a pack of chips, left over donuts and chocolates.  No time to be fussy or too particular - it's survival.  The last new experience was rather hair raising.  We were faced with a burning mountain of hay.  No way to go except through the billowing smoke and it was a good 60m deep.  We thought we had died in there.  One thing is to ward our faces from the smoke but we could not hold our breadths long enough so it was inevitable that we inhaled it.  It was scary.  For a long while after we could still taste the smoke.  Joy was down with a giddy spell and it got so bad her pace was down to a crawl.  There was not much we could do (given that there were no taxis nor buses) so she just had to plod along.  The 3km left to go seemed like eternity but we were so glad that she made it.  We had a good meal on entering Belorado and Joy seemed much better after that.  It is way past midnight now so I should say goodnight.  The tough terrain will make difficult walking tomorrow so I must have a good night's sleep.

Sunday 18th April 2010 (Ventosa to Santo Domingo de la Calzada - total walked to date 145.72km)
Ventosa means windy in Spanish and that must be how the village got its name.  It only has a population of 129.  Staying in an albergue sees everyone up at the crack of dawn.  Besides the ruling that all must leave by 8.00am, all Camino walkers like to set off early.  After 7 days of walking, I can understand why.  The sun gets really hot in the afternoons and makes walking very difficult.  It just zaps one's energy.  We were one of the last to leave and it was only 7.25am.  Braving the cold and wind, we made tracks on our 31.5km journey - the longest walk in one day since we started.  I had mixed feelings.  Can I make it in my new trekking sandals?  What if, what if, what if - I was full of what ifs.  Eventually I just left it to fate.  C'est la vie (oops, need to find out the Spanish equivalent for this).  The first town we passed through was Najera.  I liked Najera.  It is a place that I would like to return for a holiday.  The morning's walk took us through vineyards after vineyards (after all it is the La Rioja region).  But a pity that all we saw were bare branches.  I am sure it would be lovely when the grapes are in season.  The terrain is never really easy.  Invariably one would be faced with ups and downs.  The question is how steep?  After 7 days of continuous walking, I can feel that my stamina and strength has improved.  If only I can rid my legs of the blisters and muscle pain, then I am sure the walk would be even more wonderful.  After lunch, the rain set down on us.  First it was just drizzles and then it progressed to moderate rain.  Still it did not dampen our spirits for all that was on my minds was to get to Santo Domingo de la Calzada.  I have never appreciated my Garmin watch more than I did yesterday when the battery was flat!!  Only then did I realise the amount of motivation that it has been giving us.  When the battery was flat, we were left without a measure of distance.  How much left to go?  What time will we reach Santo Domingo?  Without answers to these, walking was not the same anymore.  We did not have the motivation to work towards the finish because we had no idea how far the finish was.  Anyway, the waymarkings before Ciruena was few and far between.  There was a time when we thought we were hopelessly lost.  Again, without the Garmin, we could be anywhere!  Thank God (and believe me, God works in mysterious ways on the Camino), we found the yellow arrow at the end of what seemed like eternal walking.  By then our walk was reduced to almost 2km/hr.  Our leg muscles were stiff and pain set in.  What a relief it was to finally arrive at Santo Domingo de la Calzada but the Hostel was in the centre of the town and that meant so much more walking.  My trekking sandals were not as good as I had thought.  I am afraid it will have to go.  I sorely missed the ankle support that my trekking boots provided.  I am sure it was the cause of the swollen ankles.  After checking in, we went down to the restaurant for dinner.  What a sight we must have been.  While other pilgrim diners were looking fresh and clean, the three of us staggered in, looking tired and unkempt.  Staggering because we could barely walk, we couldn't even keep our balance.  At least the day ended with a relatively nice dinner and for me an added bonus of having Joy give me a really good massage on my legs.