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Published: October 9th 2016
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Today we had a later start, 7am, and had decided to divert off the main route and walk 4kms along a road to reach El Burgo Ranero for breakfast. It was still dark for the first hour but the track was either quiet road or good gravel paths.
After yet another tortilla meal (for me), we walked an uninterrupted 13kms to Reliegos, a small village 7kms from our destination. The early morning light reflected on the hay stubble was lovely and lifted my spirits as another day commenced on the Camino.
The scenery was mainly fields of harvested hay or cornfields that dotted the landscape for much of the day. The occasional ruin, no not me, broke up the monotony, as did conversations with others along the way. I was talking to a couple from New Zealand who had been walking for a month but had had so many health issues that time had run out and their Camino finishes in León. Pity but it's more common than you'd think.
Now that my feet are OK, I move along at a good pace and often pass slower people ahead. It's no race but you need to travel at
a pace comfortable for you.
After a chocolate croissant and a coffee at Reliegos, we set off to complete the last 7kms to Mansilla de las Mulas. It was on good paths beside the edge of the road, but as the day nears an end the soles of my feet are pretty hot, and are begging for a break.
We missed out on some Alburgues again because of pre booking and finished up at the municipal Alburgue. €5 gets you a bed, a shower, Wi Fi, and the hundreds of flies bothering me right now. Yes, I have had a shower! The showers are communal with no doors. You enter the cubicle, place your clothes carefully on one of two hooks in the order you will need them, climb onto the shower base, and close the opaque plastic curtain . Good luck with that one girls ! Not too bad for me, as I don't care at the end of the day, but if you have not developed a degree of 'who cares!', it may pose problems. I wash my clothes while I'm in there , so all jobs are done.
The clothes lines are full of
Rammed earth building, El Burgo
Mud brick and rammed earth are very common in this region. Stone is less available, so mud it is. the gear of one Korean guy who had bedbugs last night and he is sleeping in our room with 20 of my new closest friends, so I hope he killed them all.
This is a pretty good village and I went for a walk around the town (10 minutes). There is the medieval wall surrounding the village, a 12th century church and a lovely old bridge over the fast flowing Rio Elsa. We cross this as we depart in the morning.
It's 18 kms to León tomorrow but depending on how far you walk through suburbs, we may catch a bus at the city limits. Funny thing happened yesterday. As a person alighted from a cab yesterday with perfect hair and a cardigan draped across her shoulders, she called out to someone, 'Buen Camino' , a greeting sometimes used on the Way. In return she received, 'Buen Cheato', which was a bit funny but pretty unfair. . Well, dinner will be at one of the many establishments near our Alburgue and an early night for me. I'm not taping my feet now so that's a time saver; plenty of Vaseline though, just before the socks go on...squishy.
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Tim
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The weather looks good anyway!