Camino Pilgrim

I have been walking now a shorter day to make sure the base of my feet have enough time to recover. Tomorrow I will hit the flat plains stronger and further again!

Meseta is the word for the Spanish desert plains. Most of the time you walk long flat stretches at 1km altitude. Benches are rare to find along the road and they have no shade over them. Trees are even harder to find and they have no benches to sit on. The distance between villages can be very long.

Practically everyone I meet now has difficulties walking normally. These +34 heat days without shade make me change socks every 10km. Otherwise, blisters would be guaranteed. The most common issue for pilgrims seems to be that the bottom of the feet have swollen up, just like is the case for me. One lady fainted from heat exhaustion.

Since I had such a short day to walk, I did only one stop for sock change and otherwise had a nice steady pace from start to finish. I found the cleaning ladies’ water buckets and gave myself a cold footbath to accelerate healing.

Today is the first day I have entered the Messeta. It will not get much easier until Leon (5 days from now). This is the reason why most pilgrims with high age or serious foot issues skip this part of the Camino. Tomorrow is +37 and the rest of the time it will continue around +34. My feet in hiking sneakers for sure are not happy with this extreme weather.

Leon will be the first big city on this trail. I will be happy to get closer to it.

Everyone is walking their own way.