Day 22 - Leon to Mazarife - 24km

The nuns gave us all breakfast in the morning and by 6:45 I was on my way. Because I was earlier than usual I was part of the ''March of the Pilgrims'' as I called the daily morning rush when all the pilgrims hit the road. This was very useful as the way out of Leon is supposed to be difficult to spot but all I had to do was follow the rucksacks ahead of me. It took a long time to reach the suburbs where I saw more of the hobbit-like bodegas, larger and fancier than their country cousins. I was surprised to reach the first village, La Virgen del Camino, without having left the suburbs, but I stopped there for a large coffee and pastry anyway.

After leaving La Virgen there was a choice of three routes, two went to Villadangos - one beside a main road and the other beside a railway line, and one went across country to Mazarife. This last was the recommended path and I decided to take it as it looked a lot pleasanter, although finding the start of it was a bit of a problem since my map appeared to be wrong. I hung around looking for someone to ask, eventually approaching a passing Brazilian couple but they were taking the road route and couldn't help me (I saw them a few days later and they said their path had been awful). I set off in what I hoped was the right direction although the yellow arrows on the ground did not agree with my map. After about a kilometre uphill through some wasteland I felt sure I was wrong and went back down to the main road, frustrated. There I met two Germans who were also heading for Mazarife and were sure my path had been the correct one. They set off along it and I thought ''to heck with it" and climbed the hill again hoping they were right. They turned out to be and I made a resolution that in future I would trust the yellow arrows more!

The path now went through pleasant countryside, was good underfoot and not too hilly, and the storm from the previous night had cleared away to leave a sunny day. I made very good going and my back was not hurting - I'd started wearing my rucksack even higher and with very loose straps as this seemed to help. I reached Mazarife by 1pm and booked into a virtually empty private albergue, the first one on the way into the village. It had a nice large dorm and the bunk beds were not crowded next to each other which made a nice change.

After the usual chores I managed to spend quite a while on the Internet as there was no time limit and no-one waiting to use it. I had a message to say my father was not at all well, which was rather worrying, but there was not much I could do except hope for more positive news over the next few days. I went out for a glass of wine and to do some shopping and bumped into Gunter in the village. He and Annette were in another albergue which sounded much friendlier and livelier than mine. I arranged to drop by later that evening after I'd had my pilgrim dinner, an extremely good meal at Tio Pepe's, but I took so long over it that by the time I arrived at their place there was no-one there. I think they'd probably gone out to a bar and since I'd just left one I decided to have an early night. My albergue was only half full, therefore quiet, and for the first time I slept straight through the night without waking up once.