A 32km day today, was a boring hike as most of it was on hard pack dirt with sharp stones. Those stone continually punch at the soles of your feet,and make for a bruising day.
Left at 5.45 am and walked out of the city, took almost 2 hours to get back into the countryside, then hard pack all the way here.

On leaving the city, we walked around this lake towards the open trails and met Marcielo. 

Marcelo is kind of the gate keeper, he is part of the Camino organization, and sometimes he will sit at this spot and give fruit etc to pilgrims as they pass, for a donation. He also will stamp your credentials to prove you met him, a real cool character

One gets a lot of time to think on this journey, but at times your mind seems to wander too far outside the box,,,which is great in my world, and you get crazy ideas.  I have seen a number of Buen Camino signs on trail, made by various individuals, I decided to photograph some and see if I can end every blog from here on out, with Buen Camino, all being different.

Ran into Martin the donkey, Uno the dog, and tony, all being together on the road through France, and now the Camino, they has all been walking for the past one year and one day. Pretty interesting guy to talk to I must say as we strolled together for a few miles.

Tony is French, and spent the last year walking to visit relatives, he won't take a car because the donkey gets car sick.

Some images from today, not the prettiest walk as I said, but tonight in the town of Najera on the river Najerilla is great, tomorrow I want to kick in the afterburners abit, and do one and another half section of the trail, try and make up another day. I have a few hiking buddies who I've met, and LeAnn is staying my pace, so I call her speedy, but blisters are her Achilles heel, so we may be parting company, she will do fine as she really knows the ropes now and makes a million new best friends everyday. The girl can talk.

Matt's knee has been an issue too, and Jason just hikes along eating every Maxibon ice cream he can find. I have a father daughter team from the Canary Islands paralleling us as well, and they want to start making time too, so things may get a little hectic here soon.

tomorrow is another day