Over halfway!
Wednesday, September 21st
El Burgo Ranero to Mansilla
Weather: sunny and warm
Another short day being only 12 miles but I put a little loop in it to extend the day somewhat.
Beautiful sunrise this morning (see photographs and video). The walk was along the side of a country lane until I took a detour to join the Roman Camino which I was walking on yesterday.
You’ll see the sign for the railway crossing in the photo. The era of steam trains has long passed but clearly a sense of humour still prevails!
The scenery is slowly changing and I’ve seen forests and acres of land cultivated for the growing of maize and somewhat wilted cabbage!
On this section of the walk I met a lady from Slovenia, Dana, and we walked and talked for probably a couple of hours. It’s amazing how good her English was. When we got into Mansilla we had a cup of coffee and would you believe at the on the next table to her was a man from Croatia. What a small world!
Mansilla has been an important Pilgrim halt since mediaeval times and has an illustrious mediaeval past. It’s the meeting place for two converging routes, the Camino Français and the Camino Romana
The town is partly enclosed by its mediaeval wall and has quaint meandering streets and squares.
Tomorrow I walk to Leon, the book says it’s a wearisome walk by the main road, so I might just start early to miss some of the traffic and get there in time to look around the city.
Thursday 22 September
Mansilla to Leon
Weather: cold at first then warm, 25/26 C
Shortish walk today through mainly urban scenery. Some was along the main road to Leon and whilst not where I would choose to walk it was curiously quite interesting. I passed car showrooms, agricultural merchants, as well as plenty of local shops and cafes.
I also walked through what we would describe as a small park.
However I arrived in Leon at 11.15 - well before my case! Just as I had signed into my hotel who should appear but Stacia who had arrived a day ahead of me. I think after tomorrow we won’t bump into each other again as I have two nights in the next accommodation. A lot of people I have been walking with will probably leapfrog me after tomorrow. That’s the way it is on the Camino, and I’m sure I’ll meet new interesting people from now to the end of the journey.
Friday 23rd September
Leon to Hospital de Orbigo
Weather: overcast but sunny in afternoon. About 25c
Today I set off on yet another short day to a town called Mazarife.
It took approximately two hours to walk through the suburbs of Leon: not terribly interesting, busy with traffic and a lot of noise. You’ll see from the photos however that there are some amazing buildings in Leon, and the coffee bar that I came across with all the old English adverts was something quite unexpected.
Once out of the suburbs we walked over an area of scrubland known as Paramo. Quite interestingly some of my technical clothing is named Paramo.
You might hear in my video that I said I would find out what Paramo stood for. Well, Professor Google informs me that the Paramo is a plateau area in South America. Oh well, clearly I’m not walking in South America but maybe there is a South American Spanish influence, given that I was walking over treeless scrubby area.
Anyhow I made Mazarife by lunchtime and choose to extend my walk onto Orbigo as it was a nice afternoon, not too hot, and that was where my accommodation was in any case. The original plan was to get a taxi at Mazarife to Orbigo and then the next day a taxi back and walk to Orbigo. Combining the two short days into a long 23 mile day gives me a rest day tomorrow.
