Day 1 on the road

I am now in the Casa de Cultura in Colmenar Viejo, which has a few old remains from the town´s origins and a few computers that are almost as old. But I am not complaining since they are free and easy to find.

I have made my first day´s walk, 27 km (well, actually 30+ if you count the kilometers I walked while lost -- no matter how well marked, I am a PRO at getting lost). It´s pretty amazing how you can leave a giant city like Madrid and in a few minutes be in the country, and in a few more minutes not be able to hear the whizz of cars. This path is basically part of the nationwide sheep´s path, which is set aside by royal decree and the herders are still authorized to bring the herds from north to south in winter. I believe they put them in trucks to get them through the city of Madrid, however. And if my memory serves, the whole phenomenon is called the transnumancia (with a few letters missing or wrong). I did see a fair number of sheep and cows today, but they weren´t going anywhere. But I saw no other walkers for the entire time, just a few cyclists on a bike path that crossed mine from time to time.

The camino is well marked but nobody knows anything about it. That´s a curious combination, usually if no one knows about it, it´s not well marked. But the Madrid friends of the camino group is very careful to keep the way marked, even though very few people walk it. So I do get a lot of strange looks and kids pointing. That will change in about ten days, where I´ll join up with the masses.

Weather is late spring, high 70s maybe. There are still tons of flowers, red poppies, yellow bushes overflowing with flowers, and then the yellow, purple, orange, and white wildflowers that dot the fields. The camino went alongside a river for a few hours, and I got to practice my "rock-hopping" at about 5 or 6 crossings. Well, hopping is a stretch.

So, now with clothes washed and my blog done, all that´s left is to buy food for tomorrow and be thankful that I brought a second credit card (since I just learned that my first one was blocked because someone tried to use it). Tomorrow, my day is either 16 or 35 kms, it´ll just depend on how I feel when I get to that first town. 16 is too few and 35 too many, so I´ll just have to take second best.

Thanks for the many notes and good wishes, I am enjoying every single step, even those when I´m lost!