11 September: Fromista to Carrion de Los Condes

Happy Birthday Patsy.

Only 18 klicks today. Extremely humid until about 10am. Then you can literally feel it lift and we had a beautiful easy walk. That is until we started past a number of fields and midgens (Northern Irish for mooshes or mozzies). I was ok but Jerry was ney a wee bonny as he had bites all over his face and bare legs.

Jerry the alien from the planet “ Argon.” Seriously he was in misery due to the bites. And that has been our existence here. Every day seems to bring its own set of challenges. Torrential rain of biblical proportions, then boots caked in mud, trails covered with rocks boulders and stone, flash flooding then extreme heat and humidity that is through the roof. Finally today we get great walking temperature and then nature laughs at us to say not so fast Johnnie and throws the third plague of Egypt at us with swarms of flies and mozzies. Thanks Moses!

We are half way there and in our 4th day on the Maseta. Tomorrow will be our last on this broad plain but the most challenging. We have a 17 kilometer hike with no shade, water, or villages. We will do 28 klicks overall. That is why today was short so that tomorrow we will tackle the 17 km right away and when it is cool. I don,t know if you can tell by the pics but this area reminds me of the prairies back home.El Alberto Condido Spain.

Santo Manitoba Spain.

And this is my other aussie walking colleague. But with the other aussie ying she is my aussie yang. She is a real sweetheart. She is 75 and keeps up with all of us. She is like the ever ready rabbit in that she just keeps going and going and going. Her name is Maryanne. She is small, wiry, thin as a waif but very headstrong and determined.

We also call her the bag lady as she has a bevy of little bags attached to her backpack filled with nuts, fruit, knick knacks and other stuff. Come to think of it we haven,t run into the aussie yang for a few days now. Thank you for that…..eeeeyeah mate!