21 km (292.3 km)
Friday 16 June 2017

I hung around waiting for the ‘Eiger Outdoor’ shop to open at 10:00 and was slightly put out when the shop assistant rolled up at around 10:15, ‘spanish time’ she said by way of an explanation to her tardy appearance. I bought the only shoes that I could get over my blisters and then set off, rather gingerly as new shoes do not solve the problems of horrible feet; the only solution really is new feet :), with a stop at the post office to send my other boots and superfluous to requirements  clothing to Santiago. Marianne had stayed with me throughout the morning which I was grateful for but felt slightly guilty about…

If the approach to Santander is something to remember then the same cannot be said for the exit. It is almost all on paved surfaces and wound its way round industrial estates, through graffiti covered tunnels and over much scrub land as well as down one stretch of road which was being laid as we walked down it, trying to avoid the steam road rollers. The day definitely rates as the worst so far and the guide book says it’s probably one of the most dreary on the whole route, so thank goodness it’s behind us. I was going to stop at Bezama but even with terrible feet I decided to lurch on to the next village to find somewhere less scary. I am now in a lovely Albergue in Boo de Piélagos. I have spent the afternoon and evening mostly with my feet up so I have high hopes for foot regeneration by the morning. A great hostelier this evening, who seemed loathe to give us any dessert if we didn’t finish our chips; she didn’t speak a word of English but it was easy to understand her. I walked for a few days with a mixed group of Spanish, French, Irish, Italian and German but tonight they are all further along and it was a new group of diverse nationalities and ages, who convinced us to take a train for 900m instead of walking across the rail tracks as suggested in my book. It almost feels like cheating to be taking the train but the alternative of walking down the train tracks strikes me as unnecessarily dangerous so the train for 2 minutes tomorrow morning it is.

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