Phew!

[Minkey]

I'm back! What fun!

Hard work, cheap food and 'Interesting' wines!

Had a nightmare with my baggage, since Iberia decided it wasn't worth taking ANYONE'S luggage on my flight and so after two days of thumb twiddling and luggage carousels, I decided to get a whole load of new stuff and just get on the road.

Everything went brilliantly with the exception of two notable instances:

1) 40k from Carrion to Sahagun - The Meseta is a soul destrying place at the best of times, but doing a 40k day on it nearly broke me, especially when I saw the little yellow arrows pointing to the right when Sahagun was clearly right before me... Argh!

2) There seemed to be an increased number of stomach illnesses this time and for once, I managed to get it... Just before O Cebreiro! Typical! Anyway, decided to stop in La Faba as a result and I'm glad I did. Cutting the route to O Ceb in half was probably the best thing I did! Got up at 0530 to get to the top, left at 0545, then I got to the top just as the sun was creeping up! Got a lovely couple of photos of the surrounding mountains!

Anyway, I met some lovely people out there... Hope we can all stay in touch.

 

[frescotours]

1) 40k from Carrion to Sahagun - The Meseta is a soul destrying place at the best of times, but doing a 40k day on it nearly broke me, especially when I saw the little yellow arrows pointing to the right when Sahagun was clearly right before me... Argh!

I hear ya! I did that same 40km stretch in the summer heat and remember how Sahagun just sat teasingly on the horizon for a good 2 hours - it was an oasis that didn't seem to get any closer ! I was so relieved when I finally arrived!

 

[Deborah]

Meseta Blues

Ahh yes... this is where I beat my palo over a huge rock in a moment of meseta madness, in an attempt to bust it into a million pieces. The palo prevailed... didn´t even dent the danged thing. My hand on the other hand was sorely bruised. I ended up tossing the palo onto the meseta. Hopefully it found a loving home with another perigrino. It sure felt good to have that tantrum though... but yeah, I hear ya.. the meseta brings on madness for some.

Ever notice how those villages just seem to get further and further away the more you walk toward them....?

 

[marktqm]

And then there are places where you're wondering why the road sign says only 0.5km to the next village, but you don't see anything in front of you, and then it creeps up on you just like that.