I finally got walking at 7.30am and I must say it was a bit of an effort. For some reason wearing my teva sandals the last couple of days had given me one sore foot. This could be because they now have a decent size gouge out of the sole. I wore them every day for 7 months while in India and a little bit since then and them seemed still in reasonable shape and ideal to bring on the camino. But then so did my boots. I think both will last me to Finisterre but will be then throw out material. My boots are getting perished between the sole and the top. Still very comfortable but I think it is only a matter of time as each day sees them a little worse than the day before.
Anyway what with a sore foot, a lazyday yesterday and an overfull pack I was walking slowly. I am now carrying rain suit plus two days food plus newspaper for stuffing in boots if they get wet, plus two books in English I picked up - do I sound like Hans? Oh yeah and a handy piece of nylon rope I found. I felt very much my father's daughter as I watched myself insticntively pick up this length of orange nylon and had flash backs to all the times he used to find handy bits of binder twine when we were walking, especially around Alford Forest. Delle of course was more of a hanky finder and would take them home and wash them and they would come up good as new. Happily that was not a behaviour I adopted!
I was vigilant leaving Leon though. I had been warned of the false arrows that some merchants had sprayed around to get you to walk past their shop. It looked to be about 8kms to the first village but in fact that village was effectively the outermost suburb. I had breakfast with me but unusually found something open on a Sunday so 'traded a majestic for a cafe con leche' (is that the way it should be phrased Simon?) and ate my breakfast with it outside.
Then on a 100 metres or so to where the Camino splits (this is the third time it has done this) and I opted for the left hand fork rather than the old roman road that follows the highway. The highway route is a couple of kms shorter but I prefer the country.
By now my foot was warmed up and so had the day and I felt back on track. It felt good to be walking in shorts and t shirt again and really good to have the meseta behind me. I got pretty sick of the endless flat. Yes even this girl who hates Wellington hills was craving a few hills and twists and turns by the time I got to Leon.
Most interesting thing I saw enroute wasanunderground house. Then another.Then another.Ihad stumbled upon annderground suburb!
Had a nice long lunch break and lay on my back in the sun and read for a bit. But then some thick black clouds came over and it seemed like a good idea to get to the albergue before it started to rain again.
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