Off the Meseta

August 27th off the Meseta
After a nice breakfast in Orbigo I set off well aware of a definite problem in my shin. After half an hour the pain dimished and was a dull throb and by 10 am I was in Astorga which sits high guarded by its stone embankments. This isw where the southern Camino joins into the main route making it an ancient crossroads. Here I met and said goodbye to the five Spaniards who got lost with me back before Leon. Their two week holidays were up and they were returning to their homes. A lot of europeans do the Camino in installments year after year during their holidays. I looked around for a rumoured sports store hoping to find new gels for my shoes but found it closed and not wanting to wait I pushed on and at the outside of town by the Ermita shrine I sat and took my gels out and put the original soles back in. Within an hour a small blisters had grown but rather than put the gels back in I figured to rough the day out and deal with it in the evening. I rubbed a hot liniment on my shins and started off again. Now the walk was starting to climb off the Meseta into the hills before me and the villages were starting to become stone instead of adobe. I walked up through the afternoon heat steadily upwards and finally came to Rabanal where I checked into the Albergue run by the friendly English fraternity, washed up and had a nice pilgrim’s meal with a young Italian I had kept running into. Knowing I had a big climb in front of me the next day I hit the bunk early and fell into la la land listening to Dylan.
To be continued