Ledigos to Bercianos -27K- to Mansilla de las Mulas

The Albergue in Ledigros was very old and set around a courtyard, so you had to go outside to access any of the other buildings - the bar/restaurant/store, the dorm, the washrooms and the kitchen - and let me tell you people, it was cold, cold, cold.

The kitchen was ancient and had some type of huge clay oven, along with an old gas range. Some of the Pilgrims make their own dinner every night, so it is useful to have these facilities, regardless of how ancient.
An Australian family who are doing the Camino - Dad, Mom and teenage daughter - are vegetarians. So they are pretty well forced to prepare their own meals, as the Spanish ones are so heavy on meat. I notice they always cook pasta.

The pilgrim meal at this Albergue was bread, wine, soup and 2 huge pork chops with fries.
Dessert is an offer of a piece of fruit - orange, apple or banana - or an individual container of yogurt.

The meals are often pretty late - 8.30 pm this night - so imagine how hungry we are.
Everyone at the table was German, so I just dozed off into my wine. This Albergue actually had a bathtub, but no one wanted to take their clothes off, even for a quick shower, let alone a bath. The dorm had a few ancient radiators, which they turned on after we all went to bed. I still wear most of my clothes to bed these days and there is not a lot of hand washing going on, so it's not pretty.

Long walk on the Mesata the next day.
It had turned super cold, with a strong North wind coming from the Pyrenees. It blew at us from the side, rather than from behind, where we would have been glad for a little push.

As we passed through Sahagún towards the edge of town, I encountered a shepherd with a huge flock of sheep and 2 herding dogs waiting for a red light to turn green. Then, he carried on down the street with his flock - his dogs keeping everything in line. Amazing to watch, but they all behaved like they had done this before.

The Albergue in Bercianos is a very old exterior of straw and mud, but with stucco on the inside. I'm so cold I thought I'd DIE.
The thing is, after 27 k, you feel cold anyways, so this was not good.

The host, however, of this Albergue - Isadoro - was very sweet and laid out the evening for us.
We would all prepare dinner together (food supplied by the Albergure), and later, the Padre (Father) would drop by, and there would be a little service for us. There were only 3 pilgrims - Edith from Switzerland, William from Venezuela and Moi.
We had a good meal of salad, potato and chorizo soup, and boiled eggs and - do I need to mention - always bread and wine.
Dessert was a big bowl of walnuts and apples.

Just as we started to eat, the Padre showed up - a young man in jeans and hoodie - and he joined us for dinner. The villages have so few inhabitants now that he looks after 9 villages, mostly older people I think, judging by the few people we see.
Towards the end of the meal a local couple showed up with their homemade liqueurs and pastries. We managed to have a great evening, despite the fact that I am handicapped by my inability to communicate with them the way I would like to.
The Padre never got around to having the service for us.

Isadoro took pity on us and moved us to a smallest room, away from the main dorm.
Still no heat of course, but with the usual amount of clothing and extra blankets, it was fine. Isadoro also served us some breakfast, next morning, of coffee, bread and Jam. This Albergue does not charge, but runs on donations, so this was especially nice of him.
He closes this one up Nov 1, which is a good thing, as there would be no surviving this place in the winter!

Bercianos to Mansilla de la Mulas
Another long walk today - cold, cold - and the Albergue here is just as cold - and again, all facilities are outside, surrounding a court yard. It's like having a shower outside in November.

One of the Pilgrims who is ahead of us, called to say he ran into snow on the Camino.
I'm not looking forward to that.