Taking a break

I decided to take my first day off yesterday, instead of walking I played the tourist in Leon, having a good look round without The Beast. The cathedral is magnificent, the stained glass windows unbelievable. The rest did me good as I´d been walking every day for twenty days, doing at least 20km a day and sometimes a fair bit more, arriving feeling pretty bushed, especially on a hot day. Today I did 23km without any problem. I reached the albergue by one o´clock and felt fine.

I haven´t really encountered any wildlife (apart from birds) so far, unless you include sheep and cows in that category! The birds are wonderful, singing their hearts out all along the way, and so many steeples and other high places have storks nesting, a lovely sight.

Talking of sheep, you find yourself doing things on the Camino you wouldn´t dream of doing at home. After a particularly long hot day I staggered into a small village, where there was nowhere to sit and very little shade, so I just plonked myself down on the pavement scrunched into a narrow strip of shade from a building. While I was sitting there a shephard came past with his flock and I nearly got trampled by the sheep. I took a photo and just continued sitting there as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The road in front of me had been covered in droppings even before I sat down, and I never noticed.

There are 299km to go, now I am getting psyched up for the mountains I´ll reach in a few days. This will be the more strenuous part of the Camino, but I think I´m ready for it.