Saturday 24th April 2010 (Boadilla del Camino to Carrion de los Condes – total walked to date 302.12km)

Our hopes of leaving at 6.00am today were dashed because Eduardo Merino (the handsome Spaniard who runs Casa Rural En El Camino where we stayed last night) insisted we had to stay for breakfast; that his mother makes the best toast in town. His power of persuasion was hard to beat so we gave in and frankly it was worth it (the French loaf was crispy on the outside and so soft on the inside). Just as well our planned departure was delayed because it was a very misty morning. 7.20am saw us all set and raring to go. The mist stayed with us till 10.30am, making our walk really pleasant as it was nice and cool. On the down side, we missed out on the very nice scenery around (as mentioned in the Camino book that we have been using as reference). Well, we cannot have everything, and we do know that we do not want the heat. Joy woke with rashes all over her body so we were also hoping for cool weather as the heat will most definitely aggravate her condition. We could not pinpoint the cause of the rashes except for the heat. Today promised walking on really flat terrain – we did get that with just the odd occasion of slight slopes. Everyone generally loves the idea of walking on flat terrain but it presents a different set of problems. It is very hard on the soles of our feet and invariably the pressure gives rise to new blisters, new aches. Same applies to walking on asphalt. Perhaps we need different kind of soles for different terrain? Of course that will not go well with carrying additional weight though. Today we managed the fastest pace since starting out 13 days ago. We started out at an average of 5.10km/hr (over the first two hours), maintaining 4.70km/hr for another two hours but dropping drastically the remaining two because we were walking a great deal of the time on stoned paths and Joy really suffered there. She too is suffering from blisters, aching knees and leg fatigue and the stones on the path were no help at trying to keep a healthy pace. We made a couple of short stops to rest our feet over a cup of tea, or to have banana and water, or just to do some stretches. On the Camino, one would stop at a Bar for that cup of tea or coffee or snacks or even to use the washroom. I have never entered so many Bars in my life! We felt really good today after the walk because we arrived at our destination by 2.00pm, giving us much more time to attend to our daily routine (book accommodation for the next day, call the transporter to tell him where to take our mochila to, laundry, super marketing for the following day’s food rations, etc). This is also another reason why we are adamant to start at 6.00am everyday from now. Carrion de los Condes is a town with a population of 2,534 and we did pick the right day to be here. Having been seeing villages of less than 100 in population, this was definitely a welcomed change. Saturdays see a lot of activities in this town – flea market, carnival, cars and trucks on sale – I think the whole town is out. We had a superb lunch at Restaurant La Corte. We stumbled on it as our accommodation was next door. The garlic soup was the best that I have had (and believe me I have had quite a lot). My main was pan fried veal and that too was delicious. Joy had calamari, with sole for her main. Needless to say, equally yummy. A lot of our pilgrim friends also stopped in this town today and it was so nice to see them, all showered and relaxed (instead of passing each other on the Camino, often after hours of walking and looking really tired). We met a lady in the Pharmacy today. She was in there to see the Pharmacist for her badly blistered feet. She was bleeding as the skins of the blisters have all torn off. She was in great pain. Having seen her condition, Joy and I decided to count our blessings that what we have suffered and are suffering is most definitely pale in comparison. And this lady is continuing with her walk! Almost everyone walking on the Camino suffers pain in some form or other; it is only the degree of pain. But the beauty of the Camino and not losing sight of what each individual is doing it for is the very essence of one’s determination to complete it. With this I will end today’s blog. Tomorrow is a new day with a new challenge!