Balaguer to Alfarras, May 7

A delightful walk today.  We started out early, and the path led us steeply up to the old wall of the city (seen in previous post).  Once on top, we headed off through rolling farmland.  A few km in, we stopped seeing our familiar yellow markers--always a source of concern.  The dirt road seemed to be continuing in more or less the correct direction, and there were occasional piles of rocks marking junctions, so we headed blithely onward.  Turns out we had lost the "way," but the road we followed took us to the correct village anyway.

Approaching Castello de Farfanya

The spacing of villages was perfect.  The first was at about 10 km, and we stopped at a bar for a cold soda.  Then another 8 km to the next village, where we had lunch.  It was super, and large, and included dessert, so things were a little slow starting up again after.  From there it was an easy 6 km or so to the town of Alfarras.  

Almost all the way was along dirt roads through rolling farmland.  At one point a coyote jumped across the road in front of us and ran into the fields to the side.  When we crested a high point soon after, I looked up toward where he'd gone, and could see his ears and eyes as he watched us from a safe distance.

Shortly after walking into Alfarras we encountered another pilgrim, the first we've seen since starting out.  She and her friend are Australians, and we enjoyed a great dinner with them while talking about the camino and where we're headed.