feb 8th...joyriding on the camino path..in an SUV

villar de mazarife to what was SUPPOSED to be hospital d'orbigo or santibanez but ended up being astorga....

in brief, becasue im short on internet time, ill explain this because it was so amusing.

we left villar de mazarife, intending to have a short day of it and stop in hospital d'orbigo. weather was better than it had been but still very cold but at least sunny. really hurting feet by time got to hospital orbigo. hospitalero there was really sweet but gro would have to sleep outside and i said she might bark so he said to go to santibanez. he said he didnt know about the dog there but that the hospitalero there was an italian guy and would feed me dinner since it was sunday and shops closed. so i set off for santibanez with hurting feet but not really a bit tired because the weather had turned nice and sunny and it was enough evening. i was though expecting a great meal and welcomng place to stay. santi was only about 4 k, but i was tired by the time we got there, despite the nice evening. i got there about 615. it gets dark around 715. the hospitalero was standing in the doorway and regretfully told me there was no way for me to stay there because the dog and he didnt have a problem wtih it but whoever in charge of teh albergue made the rules and h had to go by it. so so much for my dinner. and now our only option was ASTORGA, a further 10k....and we travel at a rate of 5 k an hour or so...so i was looking at 4 more hours of walking....mostly in the DARK, which i had sworn i wouldnt do again. i asked him which was shorter the path or the road and he said the path so i took it. about 10 minutes up the path i realized this was stupid becasue at least on the road there would be lights in the dark... i was hoping the path would cross the road again but i asked some people walking their dogs and they said it didnt. various people walking their dogs kept telling me i couldnt go to astorga it was too far cuz it was getting dark, but i kept explaining i really had no other choice. i didnt want to turn back and take the road cuz we had already come a bit of a distance. OF COURSE this couldnt be a flat treeless path but had to be one that went mostly through WOODS... ARGH. all i could think was how stupid i was for not taking the road. we did know that at least in astorga we would be welcome as a previous hospitalera had arranged for it to be ok for us to sleep there me and dog. i dont know how but somehow i at least felt energized to keep going. its amazing how you can suck it up and find more energy when you have to sometimes. anyway, along the path i saw a car on a parallel path. a big silver SUV actually, going up a mountain. i thought it was strange. then i saw it again later...i was thinking maybe it was going our way but then it disappeared. then i saw it again. this time i decided to try to flag it down. it seemed to hesitate a couple times, then off again, and then off on not the path i was going. i was like "dammit" and i was SO frustrated because i felt like i had just lost my only chance. there were gonna be no other cars out there and i still didnt know what this one was doing out there, thrashing through mud puddles, joyriding, "messing" basically, and i had no idea who was in it or if they were even safe. now i was further scared that they knew i was out there and noone else did.... i felt a little better that at least they had gone down the other path since i didnt know who they were. a little while on, as it was getting dark, i stopped to get my flashlight out of my pack and check the guidebook, and because i really had to pee and didnt want to deal with trying to in the dark. of course, at the moment i chose to pee, i saw the SUV rumbling towards me again, from the distance at least though. was i EVER relieved when it was a woman about my age driving, and her husband in the passenger seat. they didnt really speak english and me no spanish but somehow i communicated to them please was it possible to take me even a little way towards astorga if possible cuz it was getting dark we were very tired etc. they said no problem, loaded me in, and we proceeded to totally joyride down the path, branches scraping the sides of the car every inch, through rocks, deep mud puddles, etc. it was NOT a path meant for cars but they didnt care. they told me they were going to get gas, then to astorga. i mentioned to them how the car was getting scratched. the guy just laughed, they didnt care and thought it was fun, like thats what the car was meant for. i dont know what they were doing out there still...and we arrived at the gas station via the camino path. they said they had seen me wave them down earlier but werent going that way earlier or something. i told them they had a fun car. i was profusely grateful for this ride they gave me, dropping me off at the albergue in astorga. where we got to sleep inside in a hallway. we were SO lucky. or so "looked out for" or whatever.