Today was somewhat of a learning experience, I should have learned to take better notice of the guide, Pack more water and food, On this stage there are 2 options, Go rural or walk next to a road, We chose rural and it was nearly all on an old Roman road, One of the best in Spain by all accounts and i was walking in the footsteps of Emperor Augustus, Sound great, I thought that we would meet the road and a village after 18km or so, A long walk before breakfast, The route did not go as i had hoped and to get to the village there was a detour of 1km or so, We continued, Flat straight and of nothing to mention track, I did not even get the camera out!! I took a break after around 15km and after 5-10 minutes continued but as soon as i started to walk my left foot did not feel right, I did not have any sensation of something wrong before i had stopped, The morning was very chilly so i did not expect my feet to over heat, However on inspection i had great big blister on my little toe (left foot) i could not believe it, After over 250 miles i now had 2 blisters, I pinned the blister and treated it and then stood to carry on, Hold on i said now my right heel felt wrong, Sure enough there was a tiny blister there, Once again i treated it and carried on, A few miles/KM later i stopped and swapped my Salomon boots for my Merrell sneakers, It felt immediately better, My feet could breathe and were cool, I walked onto Mansilla where i stopped in a bar for coffee and something to eat-25KM/16miles after starting, I was bushed and did not think i could go on, I treated the blisters in the bar only to find that my original blister had a new friend close by, I popped into the farmacia next door and bought some band aids and then walked another 5km to an Aubergue only 15km from Leon,
Tomorrow will see some milestones, Firstly i will have walked over 300 miles since i started, Leon in itself will be a milestone as its one of the major cities along the way and i will have conquered the Meseta, In a few days i will be back in the mountains and i am really looking forward to that,
I have to say that my little Fujifilm XM1 has been the perfect companion, No problems with it amd it takes great quality images, The Auto ISO function works great, Making it quick and easy to use, Sure the AF is not good for anything that moves fast but for general hiking and landscape type images its very good, The images you see on the blog are straight out of the camera Jpegs,
Some of the few images taken today
Poppy field
Flowering trees line the Camino
Entering Mansilla
Pilgraim statues are everywhere
Another tree in bloom
Bridge near our Aubergue
Dave
No comments:
Post a Comment