Overnight - Hostal Santiago
A reasonably comfortable day today with a mostly flat walk in warming weather. The first short stage was nearby trees and ran alongside a canal, while the final 19 kilometres from Fromista was a nice gravel path paralleling a minor road.
The guidebook suggested an alternative route away from the road and seemingly in amongst some trees, but with my experience of the Maseta in mind, I was happy to gravitate toward the brutalism of the standard route. It turned out to be something of a grind, but I arrived at Carrion in good time.
A couple of interesting sights on the trek today were my first Camino runner (he looked like a typically efficient ultra-marathoner and I don't doubt his capacity to make it to Santiago within the week), and first barefoot walker. He was an Asian guy who appeared to have picked up a deep Spanish tan and gave the impression he'd started his Camino much closer to his own continent than this one.
Carrion de los Condes is the biggest town I've been through since Burgos and I took the opportunity to stock up at the supermarket. I spent most of the rest of the day eating it at the very impressive, pre-booked, hostal Santiago (Froome starred again at Le Tour with the courageous Porte picking up a few more seconds) in preparation for an early night.
I also spent some time figuring out where I'll go tomorrow. My next booked hotel is in Leon, so for the next three nights, I'll be doing what many pilgrims have probably been doing most of the way so far - improvising.
Basically, there's about 95 kilometres to Leon, at an average of 24 kilometres a day between now and my booking. Tomorrow, there's a few options and an early start gives me the option of cranking out a 35+ kilometre day if I feel so inclined and then cruising into Leon with some short days. We'll see what happens.
Weather - A cooler, overcast early morning which typically warmed up significantly as the day pressed on.
Health - The right foot was again the villain today, with a blister appearing on the heel which needed to be bandaged before the walk. Other bits of that foot then started straining at various places as we went along. Annoying but not dramatic.
Food - Ham bocadillos x2 at Fromista cafe; Mixed salad + Cup of tea at Villalcazar de Sirga; Groceries at Carrion supermarket (asparagus, mixed salad, bag of biscuits, peanuts, ham, Brie cheese, baguette, mini yoghurts x4, apples x3)
Expenses - Accommodation - 35.00; Food/Drink - 15.87; Other – 0.22 tip at Fromista café for drying my credencial that had suffered some water damage Total - 50.87
Walking time - 5 hours, 50 minutes (start 6:45am, arrive at accommodation 12:35pm)
Brierley distance - 25.1km (total 368.5km)
Daily Steps - 36,319
Total Camino steps - 598,425
No comments:
Post a Comment