Tendonitis

Today I had to stop cos I thought my foot was going to explode. Turned out I had cramp and that my ankles are now better. Goes to show you...  Luckily it means I can now walk to the bar with some others now... byeeeeee

Distances

I passed a sign today that said 577km to go to Santiago. So I must have 560km left now. I will reach Burgos the day after tomorrow. I have planned to arrive early so I can site see once register at the Perigrinos (Pilgrim) Hostel.

Last night I stayed in a church bell tower (I am sure the photo´s would do it no justice). A rubbish nights sleep in a loft with 20 others. Got kicked in the back twice by this loud Aussie woman. Well she was loud when she was awake and could not keep still when she was asleep.

We dried our laundry in the eves of the bell tower. I took a good picture of the stained glass window with a te pilgrim references in it. Shame I can´t upload it....

Sunburn

The back of my legs got burnt today (Are you still reading this?  I have 16 minutes left of credit... just a warning). I am walking west so only one bit is getting burnt. The back & left. Hnmmmm

Singing

MaryAnna advised me to learn some songs. I failed to do this. Last week I ended up singing the music to Lassie TV series. ´Lassie come home'. I can assure you it had no real relavence to the trip, but I would ove to know where it came from.

I now know I know no songs. I have taken to humming and making up words. Since I am no poet this is mixed at best. As part of my let it all go regime I have taken to saying them out load. They are not memorable so there is no repetition. Noone has yet caught me dong this. it does kill a few minutes when walking through industrial estates. (Have I mentioned them yet?)

Another thing I like doing:

I like swinging my pole about like I just dont care. This can only be done on a very smooth relatively flat surface. Otherwise I tend to topple over. Not yet fallen but tottered quite a bit. That makes me laugh. If anyone else is about they tend to laugh as well.

What to do when walking for 6 hours a day?

My new favourite hobby has developed into ranking the road surfances that I am walking on in terms of comfort. Now since this computer can not download pictures for some unbelievably compliated reason (in Spanish) I feel the need to use my 2 euros (that I put in before I realised) to give you the list. Please note it is likely to require upgrading as weather conditions vary.

Staring with the worst (I cannot see this changing:

1. Tarmac of a quality to take lorries. Hurts the feet like hell after 10 miles.
2. 5cm ish pieces of stone. Put down to ´improve' the camino. Hurts like something close to hell and hard to balance on.
3. Cement roads. They are very keen on these here. YUK
4. lots of road surfaces as yet unidentifed fit into these places
5. 1cm pices of stone on hard compacted dry clay - you get caught out easily  and have an ankle wobble and it has no give.
6. Compacted cinder track
7. Compacted gravel track with sand
8. Dried slightly uneven dirt track - the unevenness actually helps the feet and cses less pain. Not sure why I guess the foot rolls more. I will spend some time working out a theory NEXT WEEK (did I really sign up for all of this????)
9. Soft dried dirt track is a good surface
10. A new one in yesterday is wet well cambered compacted sand on gravel after a 30 minute heavy down poor. I love this surface. it has lovely give and actually helps the feet feel better than ever. I don´t want to ask for rain, let me make that clear. But I like the effect.

La Rioja

ThisThis just about brings you up to date. 577km to go and after tomorrow I will have walked across Navarra and La Rioja. I can report cuisine and wine are good. The path can be painful in lots of ways (feet / mind) but I have not stopped smiling since I started.