Saturday 22 May 2010

The Real Camino

Just outside Sahagun the way divides in two,one is the Camino Real a 2m wide gravel path to Mansilla 27km long.
The alternative is the Calzada de los Peregrinos a mainly Roman road higher and longer at 31, that road was ment for you and me.
 I walked with Phil a man from Alberta Canada with an accent stright from the film "FARGO" we had the place to ourselves and truly felt the history and the vastness of the Meseta,for the first time I listned to music on phils mp3 while he went in search of Roman relics,I danced down the road to Van Morrison, my walkingstick as been lots of uses to me, today to the sound of "Baby Please Don,t Go" it became my air guitar and boy did I play it.
  so much fun was being had we decided to make a day of it and sleep out the night,a break for lunch then a nap under the trees where I took the lead part in the remake of the film "A Bugs Life" stocked up with food and wine and walked till 8pm a distance of 34k from Sahagun, made our beds beside a quite railway track watched the sun go down lay back and then watched the best star show I have ever seen interupted only by the quite railway track now turning into the main freight line into Leon, each train sounding like it was going right over us.
But nothing was going to spoil the show not even the forgotten fact that the Meseta is high and gets cold at night!!!.
 We woke with the dawn and walked like true Pilgrims into Mansilla drank coffee and hopped like sheep onto a bus into Leon.
 20k down the road finds me in one of my favorate Albergues the de Jesus in Villar Mazarife a welcome relief after the restrictions of Leon.
Thoughts of home intrude and new plans are made daily only to be changed by what the Camino brings,I may have not got what I want but as always the Camino brings you what you need.
Today the boots that have help me walked 2 Camino,s where left by the side of the road if you ever pass them please say Hi

3 comments:

  1. Quoting Woody Guthrie and the Rolling Stones...name dropper.

    I hope you were very cold sleeping out under the stars and the trains gave you nightmares.

    All the best. Keep going.
    David

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  2. So did Leon bring you new shoes in return for some restrictions then? Glad you got a night out under the stars, even if it did turn cold. Hehe. So you never stopped in Leon after all?!

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  3. still walking,now in running shoes,but don,t seem to be going any faster,just climbing in the hills of Leon,can,t seem to stop.

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