20.6 km (557.1 km)
Friday 15th April
I looked out of the window this morning at 6 and to my dismay it was still raining. I had thought I’d spend a little time looking round Astorga as there are a few lovely looking Squares and monuments but there seemed little point so I put on my damp clothes and wet boots and had a very early start, meaning to complete the day as early as possible. It is the first day that I’ve actually not had the energy to walk, never mind walk in torrential rain but I suppose after 20 consecutive days on the go this is not really a surprise. I stopped after 5km, then after 10 but after 20km I arrived at Rabanal del Camino at 11:45. I had lunch in a beautiful converted monastery and then just stopped. I couldn’t bring myself to keep going so I booked in, took a long bath, washed all my clothes and now I am sitting in my lovely room knowing at least tomorrow I will start off dry! The town is very pilgrim friendly and I’d suggest looking it up in the Internet to see how picturesque it is, as I’m sure my photos won’t do it justice. Tomorrow is the most mountainous part of the walk since the first day so hopefully there should be some views (!), I’m looking forward to the climb 😊.
Something is not quite right with my kilometres; it would appear that I have 239.6 km left to go, but this added to my running total of 557.1 gives me an extra 20km. This must be down to taking scenic routes, I’m presuming…today I was actually thinking that nearly 600km was plenty and I could just hop on a bus to Santiago, but of course I won’t…