Day 21: I Take a Leap

Yesterday, as I plodded through the rain into Sahagún, I decided I had had enough of the meseta and its accompanying head games. It had now been a week since I had the run in with the cyclist as I left Burgos. There were some gorgeous days -- some of the loveliest moments of the whole experience. Some of those had happened in the rain.

But then I saw a sign that said LEÓN 75 KM.

That was three more days. THREE MORE DAYS of flatflatflat and tiny villages with all their shutters down and no open cafes and endless deserted paths through plowed fields.

After two days of virtually no human contact -- not even much in the animal kingdom -- and what was starting to feel like endless uncontrolled crying, I decided I could make a change.

And the Camino provided. As I walked into town, I saw a train pull in. Ah ha! There was a RENFE station. And there it was -- on the other side of a gate -- that was open! Okay, so there was some climbing around and crossing of tracks in a manner not exactly condoned by the good people of RENFE. But it all led me to the ticket window where I asked the nice lady if there were any trains on Sunday to, oh, say, Astorga?

Why yes, there were. And she sold me a ticket. For 10€ I was going to get out of this mind numbing landscape and that much closer to the mountains again.

So at 12:52 I got on a train in dreary Sahagún, and at 14:06 I got off in sunny Astorga. The mountains loomed on the horizon. I saw cows and chickens and huge, fat rainbows unlike any I had ever seen before. The moon was there in an incredible blue sky. And it all felt exciting again like that first day out of St Jean Pied de Port.

Now, instead of arriving in León on Tuesday, weather permitting (and I think it will), I'll be at the La Cruz de Ferro, the highest point on the Camino Francés.

So much better.


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Location:Murias de Rechivaldo, Spain