Camino Francés 2023 – Day 6 – Ledigos to Bercianos de Real Camino

September 20th 2023

• Ledigos to Bercianos de Real Camino
• Distance: 26.1 km
• Albergue: Albergue La Perala

After a reasonable sleep in one of the better albergues on the Camino Francés, I was woken up by an alarm clock belonging to one of the Japanese pilgrims beside me. I rest for a few moments before deciding to get up. Breakfast was at 7am. It was going to be a hot day (Spanish weather forecasts are very helpful) but the day’s walking wasn’t special – more walking along the main road! That said, I had three days left and I was going to enjoy it.

After a filling breakfast, I left with Yon from Hawaii. She had walked from St Jean so had considerable more miles on the clock, so to speak. I had no destination for the day although I did have my eye on El Burgo Ranero as I had stayed there two years prior. The sun was rising as we were walking through Terradillos and we spotted the odd pilgrim leaving the town.

It was good to have a decent conversation with Yon, who actually had family from Japan. She was mixing between the American pilgrims and Japanese pilgrims but preferred walking by herself. Which I preferred to do. We didn’t see any real amount of pilgrims until we reached the town of San Nicholas de Real Camino. Just as we entered the town, Casa Barrunta greeted us, and so did a litter of kittens. I needed to stop and take a photo. A large queue of pilgrims were waiting for the 2nd fix of cafe con leche and croissant. We are 7km into today’s walk and I was looking forward to it. I told Yon of the half way point at the Ermita de la Virgen del Puente and we walked on after finishing our snacks.

It wasn’t long before we had Sahagún in our sights. It is a fairly large town, compared to others with plenty of facilities and accommodation. My last time there was in 2021 close the plaza. Before arriving in Sahagún, we stopped at the “Ermita de la Virgin del Puente” which marks the halfway point of the Camino Francés. This means a lot to pilgrims who had started in St Jean and intend to finish in Santiago. You can collect a certificate in Sahagún showing this achievement. Moving on, I had already decided to by-pass Sahagún but Yon was in no hurry. She met some friends outside what was the “Hostal Bastide du Chemin” so I let her be and walked on. We didn’t meet again.

The walk from Sahagún is along the road and can be monotonous at times. The senda is lined with trees and this was my only shade from the sun. You have, of course, the option to walk on the old Roman road via Calzadilla de los Hermanillos. It re-joins the Camino Francés in Mansilla de las Mulas. Many prefer to walk via El Burgo Ranero however. This 10 km was quite solitary and I took my time listening to some music. I counted the trees as I passed them, something I started doing back in 2013.

I arrived in Bercianos close to 1pm to an empty albergue – Albergue La Perala. It was too early to stop walking but my feet were hurting, more specifically my large toe. It was really bothering me. I have had years of suffering with ingrown toe-nails so this was nothing new to me. I was grateful that there was a bed available as quite a lot of pilgrims were reserving beds in advance – something that is becoming the norm now. La Perala is a new albergue, well, I’m not sure I saw it when I passed through in 2021. Maybe I did. I had dinner with Bridget and Peter – a fantastic dinner and good conversation. I had some well earned rest for a longer walk the following day. I discovered that there would be rain the next day – or so the weather forecast advised. The Spanish forecast had been right so far – I doubt it was going to be wrong this time.

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