Halfway!!!! (Days 16-18)

We enter a new month and from Fromisto we start a string of relatively short days. Since our 34 day plan has no rest days, our third week on the Camino will be our recovery week.

Day	Date	From	To	Miles	Total
16	10/1	Fromista	Carrion de los Condes	13.0	229.8
17	10/2	Carrion de los Condes	Calzadilla de la Cueza	10.0	239.8
18	10/3	Calzadilla de la Cueza	Sahagún	13.8	253.6
19	10/4	Sahagún	El Burgo Ranero	10.7	264.3
20	10/5	El Burgo Ranero	Mansilla de las Mulas	11.7	276.0
21	10/6	Mansilla de las Mulas	Leon	11.8	287.8
22	10/7	Leon	Villar de Mazariffe	12.6	300.4

Day 16 (Oct 1): Fromista to Carrion de los Condes, 21 Km, 370 Km

Another beautiful day on the Camino. Had breakfast at the hotel and headed out (along with a herd of hikers) onto the Camino for a short, 13 mile, hike to Carrion de los Condes. And you never know what you’re going to see…

Soon after the giant hand we passed a 13th century hermitage, the Ermita de San Miguel.

We stopped for lunch in Villalcazar de Sirga and visited the Iglesia Santa Maria la Blanca. The church has Templar roots, the last three templar knights associated with the church were removed in the Templar purge of the early 1300’s.

Nearing our day’s destination…

And …. our home for the night…

Day 17 (Oct 2): Carrion de los Condes to Calzadilla de la Cueza, 16 Km, 386 Km

A 16 km (10 mile) day!!!! This is our shortest day so far and is basically a rest day for us. And today marks the halfway point in time (though not in distance – we pass that milestone tomorrow). It is a short, straight, hot (no shade) walk across the Meseta.

The day is so short that we end up eating our lunch in our destination. This also gives us all afternoon to catch up on laundry and do some equipment maintenance. About 5 miles in we stumbled upon some enterprising fellow with a food truck (and coffee!).

And more strangeness along the trail…

Day 18 (Oct 3): Calzadilla de la Cueza to Sahagún, 22 Km, 408 Km

A little longer day so, because breakfast was served unusually early, we were able to get out before sunrise for our earliest start of the hike, 6:50. This is nice because it has warmed up a bit (50 at sunrise rising to 80 in the afternoon).

And it was another flat day on the Meseta.

But today was special as hit the official halfway monument just outside of our destination in Sahagún.

And of course we had to get our official halfway certificates (3€ at the Sahagun tourist office).

We arrived in Sahagun a bit after noon and we were so hungry we overdid it a bit for lunch. We ordered so much food they had to bring extra tables.

And tomorrow begins the second half of the adventure.