We left just before seven o’clock having woken to Dorothy’s alarm thirty minutes earlier.

The temperature today wasn’t expected to go much above 20 degrees, so we had plenty of time to walk the 36.6 km to tonight’s stop at Mansilla de las Mulas. The last time we stopped here we stayed at an albergue with half a dozen women but tonight we have a private room in a private hostal.

The route today was monotonous as we ran alongside a quiet road all the way with the usual huge fields of oats, barley etc. An exception was the first field of sunflower heads we’ve seen so far.

We had a choice of routes but chose the one that ran through a couple of villages where we stopped relatively briefly for coffee and in the first stop, ham and eggs. Food in Spain is apart from some notable exceptions, appalling. Vegetables and fruit are invariably tasteless, probably the result of mass growing techniques. Huevos con baicon is an exception and after 5-10km first thing in the morning, delicious. In Bilbao and San Sebastian where there are very good but expensive restaurants, food can indeed be good, but on the Camino good food is very much the exception rather than the rule.

Today was like every day on the meseta a story of humongously large fields. I estimate that some of these are between 100-200 hectares in size. That’s between one and two km long and up to a km in width. The herbicide chaps have been out in force along the way and have annihilated pretty much every flower and blade of grass for 30 km. But …

The last time we walked the meseta I enjoyed the huge skies. This time it’s been impossible to be unaware of the awful impact on wildlife that such large fields full of single crops have had. Additionally, it’s only because pilgrims make such a contribution to the local economy that the paths are kept scrupulously clean of vegetation. Without us I’m sure that there would be more opportunity for insects and birds to ply their trade. Perhaps this should be discussed in the forums.

Something that was rather odd today were a line of trees leading up to the out of village cemetery whose trunks were enclosed in woollen sheaths.

We stopped for lunch at a small wooden construction.

And are now …

Once we reach León tomorrow we’ll be leaving the meseta and starting to climb into the hills in Galicia. The weather should be cooler with more rain but the ground will be much greener, wooded and with far more diverse flora and fauna.

In the meantime, more maize.

Just as a matter of interest, here’s a typical Spanish road at the height of the day.

I’m afraid that we’ve chosen our accommodation quite badly tonight. There were no reviews of Hostal San Martin that we could find anywhere which is often a bad sign. C’est la vie. It’s only an 18.8 km hike to León tomorrow which should give us plenty of time to explore what is a lovely city.

Buen camino

Addendum 1 : we’re in León!

Our room in Mansilla de Los Mulas stank (I have no olfactory sense) and Dorothy simply couldn’t stomach it. The springs on the mattress were almost coming through the sheet which I disliked and the sheets weren’t terribly clean. Dorothy composed an explanation in English which she put into Google translate and we headed downstairs. We gave the keys to the chap we’d met at reception and showed him the text. His wife who happened to be standing nearby apologised and explained that the smell was due to the drains but that it only affects rooms four (our room) and six! They refunded the 45€ and we left. Booking.com switched our reservation in León from tomorrow to tonight so off we trotted. We popped into a nearby café where Dorothy explained our predicament to the young girl at the counter who promptly ordered a taxi for us. The taxi dropped us outside the hotel and we’re in. The room is fine, the bed has a proper mattress and there are no undue smells.

Addendum 2 : Tal’s emergency operation on his paw went as planned, muchos gratias Menna and two grass seeds were removed. All are now home and well – so relieved 😌