Day 20 - A Day That Started Still Dark

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Route: San Martin del Camino - Astorga

A day that started still dark at 8.00am and cold (7C).

Quite a wakening. This I had not bargained for and do not all the required cloths. My hands were really cold. I need to buy gloves and some other things in Astorga because tomorrow and the day thereafter we go higher and Astorga was this morning 2C with mist....Now with sun out it is a nice 15C. I walked 25 km in about 6.10 hours. The 4 km/hour seems to be more or less the average speed every day and as such, each calculation of distrance translates automatically into hours. 10 km to go is equal to 2.5 hours.

This day could have perfect if it were not for a stretch of road of 6 km with pure stones that were killing feet. On the blog I will put a foto of the path. For the timebeing I checked in a 4 star hotel took a glorious bath and am now eating a local high protain dish. As the saying goes, I deserve it....


By the way, a night at an albergue cost, if you eat there , between €20-25 in cash This hotel including a full breakfast and paid with "a subsidy of the venezuelan government results in a cost of about €30 if paid by credit card". Honestly what would you do?

I made a major decision here. Arriving at the hotel and taking off my boots, I detected that the soles of my boots are totally spent. This may be the reason why I have suffered from more blisters than I have had until now. I have bought a pair of new, very expensive boots (Marmot's) that are guaranteed not to produce blisters...

I will wear them the following days, but will not throw out my old ones until I am convinced that the new ones are good. Being at the store, I bought myself a pair of gloves and a hat.

Astorga is a lovely little historical town.

Tonight I had dinner with Lars, a Norwegian, who I have been seeing since the second day of my trip.

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