Author: Dee Dee Heslop

Much needed rest day in beautiful Leon, Spain. The Mitchener’s may have taken the term a little too literal, as they apparently were not vertical until 10:30 am! The rest of us were a little jealous, as we headed to the laundromat at 8:30, but all of us had more sleep than normal.

We saw a good bit of the city today – as we added over 6 miles – on our ‘off day’??? Our biggest regret was not getting to the Cathedral before it closed. Still, a very relaxing day ….. ahead of what we already know will be a difficult, mountainous week.

Buen Camino Returns👣

CAMINO DAY 23

Watched a gorgeous sunrise this morning, as all five of us started our final segment of the Meseta earlier than normal. The forecast for the next several days is intense sunshine and increasing temps. Thought we should get in the habit of avoiding the afternoon heat. Only had a 11.5 mile hike to reach our hotel in León, and meet up with the 6th member of the ‘Alabama Gang’ – as we are so fondly referred to by many of our fellow pilgrims from around the world! Very excited that Alecia came a day early and was waiting for us when we arrived today. The relatively short walk to Leon grew by nearly 50% as we toured the town after lunch and ended up with over 16 miles on our Apple watches.

Tomorrow is our first ‘rest day’, after 23 straight days on the Camino and nearly 300 miles under our belts. Not sure that we might not get a little antsy tomorrow if it were not for the fact León is such a vibrant and enchanting city. A blend of modern and antiquity. A city with seemingly endless streets lined with shops, tapas bars, and restaurants, all surrounding a beautiful, gothic-style, 13th century cathedral, behind ancient city walls. There seems to be so much to see and do here, so we are all looking forward to reporting our findings tomorrow. Buen Camino!

It has been a little difficult to post new and exciting words and pictures over the last couple days of the Camino. This part of the Meseta just doesn’t lend itself to that. Essentially, on both days we have followed a dirt path that parallels a road – very straight, very boring – for about 23 miles. The weather has been the most interesting variable. Yesterday, we left Sahagun with rain attire on and endured about an hour of windy, wet weather. The rains stopped, but the cold wind continued the entire way to El Burgo Ranero. There, we found a nice little restaurant in town and had lunch. We already knew that accomodations in this town were difficult, so we had pre-booked a house in a small village 5 miles to the south. We found a taxi that took us there and back the next morning. We were able to buy some food to cook dinner and breakfast at the rural 3 bedroom house. After the taxi dropped us off back in the town of El Burgo Ranero this morning, we started walking with several other pilgrims for eight straight miles to the small.town of Reliegos. We are a sandwich and took a break for feet maintenance and then walked an additional 4 miles to our destination for the night, Mansilla de la Mulas. Upon checking into our private hostal and enjoying a glass of homemade Sangria, we started getting excited about Leon and having Alecia join us there tomorrow. And most importantly, the END OF THE MESETA and the reintroduction of mountains and incredible scenery! Buen Camino!

Have you ever watched the NFL combine preparation, where the athletes try to run against large elastic bands that keep them essentially in place, despite their efforts to move forward. Sprinkle in about 40 minutes of rain – and THAT WAS OUR ENTIRE DAY! I am not sure that I have ever walked more than a block in such extreme conditions, but to trek 14+ miles AGAINST winds that were consistently 25 to 30 miles per hour, and occasional gusts that had to be 50 mph was, to say the least, extremely difficult. It may also explain why you won’t have a plethora of beautiful pics following this recap. We left Calzadilla de la Casa about eight this morning under threatening skies, fully prepared for rain. What we could not have been prepared for was the wind. While the ambient temperature hovered in the 50s, the wind chill was often very cold. The day was broken up by three small towns over the course of the first 10 miles. We finished the day in Sahagun, a town of about 2,800 people, and I think we would universally agree that this was one of the more difficult days we have had. Good thing we are in ‘pilgrim’s shape’ after 20 days on the road!

An unusually early morning departure from Villacazar de Sirga this morning in preparation for a 14.5 mile day, with only one town, at the 3.5 mile point. It was forecasted to be a relatively hot and dry day in the Meseta and we wanted to do most of our walking before the afternoon sun took its toll. Well, the 14 miles was partially as advertised; very long straight, seemingly endless roads, with little scenery beyond the beautiful town of Carrion de los Condes. But the weather turned out to be much cooler than expected, mainly due to 20 + mph winds blowing against us for much of the last 8 miles. Most of the pictures we shared today were of Carrion de los Condes. Our biggest regret was that we did not walk 3.5 miles further yesterday and stay in this vibrant town. There is a former monastery there that was converted into a fabulous hotel, right on the Camino. Would have been a nice treat ! Well, the BIG NEWS of the day came from a GPS App that we have for the Camino – which shows us 50% of the way to Santiago!! I would say ” it’s all down hill from here” ……….. EXCEPT we have two more steep mountains to climb after Leon. ��