29 May to Astorga

The last “uncharted stretch” (by me) of the Camino Francés turned out to be fairly agricultural.

Every step of the way was painful today – I have not experienced a Camino like it, and if I should make it to Santiago on foot, it will feel the biggest achievement of all my caminos. It might be only half the distance of the longest one, I may not have frequently churned out more than thirty kilometres, but it has been hard and has required more of me both mentally and physically than the caminos that looked impressive as far as statistics go, but felt less demanding!

Out of the blue appeared something that looked like a rest stop – most welcome in the heat.

No one wanted to sit out in the sun….

…but relaxing in the shade was a different story.

There was such a spread of food and beverages – tea, coffee, water, oranges to juice, cheese, breads, biscuits, a variety of nuts in their shells, olives, watermelon, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, bananas, cakes, crackers, chips… all for however much you might choose to donate.

And then there I was back at the spot where our very first Camino began twelve years ago. We didn’t know it at the time, but it would be our last “family holiday” with all the children before they started getting married. Looking back I can now see it marked the beginning of a difficult stretch for us as a family. I hope being back here closes that chapter for us.

I’m staying in the same hostel and sketched the statue where everyone lined up for our first Camino photo – it looks a bit lonely on its own.

I really should have stayed put for the afternoon, but special buildings called. My compromise with myself was to simply walk TO them and sit down outside to look – no extra wandering.

Astorga marks the end of the meseta and the beginning of the last stretch to Santiago.

This seems a good time for the promised GraphGuy update. When I saw an update in my email inbox I thought he’d just have added the latest data. But no! GraphGuy had the biggest dopamine hit recently (GraphGuy is also a GolfGuy and he hit a HOLE-IN-ONE, which made him SO excited he just had to make some new graphs. And supply explanatory analysis!) As always, Guy’s Important Words are in bold.

Quick update on two graphs prior to your official end to the Meseta…also to introduce a new line in Orange on the Rolling 7 Day Graphs. The new line is “Required Kms per day to meet to meet Goal”. The Goal being Santiago de Compostela on June 20th….2024.

As of Leon this new addition to the graphs shows required 11.2 kms per day or just over the original 10.9kms per day target. 

Let’s not tell GraphGuy that his calculations based on guidebook distances are Very Sensible, but much less than what I’m actually doing. My detours and climbing hills to visit castles and trips to the supermercado really muck up his statistics!

The main purpose was to show me I could do it, which was very kind of him. Tick.

And you know what? There’s another guy, also called Guy, with Camino affiliations. I’ve actually met this one – on the Via de la Plata and at home when he and his wife visited from their home in Australia. While GraphGuy was doing his thing, AustralianGuy was encouraging me too:

You’ll make it!  You’re that kind of person….Travel safe amiga, you WILL make it.

What a blessing to have such Great Guys in my life cheering me on!