Day 18- Boadilla to Carrion de los Conde

At a glance:
Cultural highlight:
Food highlights: lunch picnic: croissants with cheese and peach jam (Liz) and dinner of a tasty stew (Trudy)
Kilometres walked: 32k!
# of steps: 41,785!
Elevation gain: nothing to speak of until kilometer 27 when we were tired and a 29m rise looked like a mountain.
We walked along a long canal where fishermen threw baskets to catch crayfish, The canal was noisy with frogs and bird song. We dodged mudpuddles on the track and aired our feet often. We stopped for our picnic lunch and changed our socks to prevent worsening of my (Trudy) blisters After about 12 km the canal trail joined the Pilgrim track and we were away from any shade. There were the usual cereal crops (wheat and barley as well as as fallow) along the side of the track. The last kilometers were coming up and there was only the highway, a hill and hot sun. However soon to çome was the sound of thunder. Dark clouds and intermittent breaks of sun highlighting the fields made a beautiful pattern in the distance. We walked on and soon saw the church towers of Carrion de los Condes in the distance. Hostal Santiago was in the middle of town on the plaza near a church with stork nests and we could hear their guttural chatter from the open skylight. Liz insisted we head to the medical clinic for them to look at my blisters as my ankle was getting a bit swollen. I was a bit reluctant to go because I was worried that the orders might mean to rest. Anyhow the clinic was closed as it was 2:00 pm so we went back to the hostal to shower and wash clothes. Liz had lost her shade umbrella on the trail. She was hoping that a pilgrim would pick it up and bring it forward to Carrion. A very beautiful athletic (always doing stretches when not walking) woman had reported seeing it and had left it on the side of the track, thinking it belonged to a local, at least an hour and half back from our coffee break spot. So we went shopping in hardware, shoe and outdoor stores in this very small village. I was surprised that we eventually found a pretty good folding umbrella in an outdoor store.
We had dinner by chance with Paula and Sue again.
The Centro de Salud opened at 6pm so we went and joined a line up of other pilgrims with foot issues and some locals. A woman came out after 6pm and let some folks in but blisters were not urgent so I waited. Liz returned the hostal to bring in the laundry as the rain had started. We also tried phoning the medical insurance company. Many phone calls later I just reached the company as I was escorted into the clinic. Luckily Liz persisted with the calls (note from Liz: I impersonated Trudy while she was getting treated...you have to start a claim BEFORE getting treatment. Fo not pass this on the any Medoc company people).
There were so many questions I would have given up. The technician also had many questions and reams of forms to sign etc. I estimate that it was a good 20 (note from Liz: 5 ) minutes inside before a doctor came in to look at the worst blister. I had about 5 blisters but they only looked at the one on my right heel as we pointed to it. That blister had opened earlier and a wad of pus had come out. However when they took off the Compede dressing off only a relatively small amount of murky fluid came out (note from Liz: a lot more than small amount!). The doctor declared it was more like a sprained ankle and prescribed Ibuprofen, rest, icing, physiotherapy and some sort of ankle brace (Liz: and change blister coverings ightly for 2 more nights a d keep an eye on it). I couldn't see how we could accommodate all this (Liz: easy).
Liz: And NO more walking for a few days.
When we came out of the clinic there was Paula who also was suffering from foot blisters. I told her what the doctor had said and she decided not to go into the clinic and just treat them herself with her foot care kit and rest.
Given our timing we decided to go to Sahagun together, see the town and go from there.
So our walk had ended two days before we had planned.Read more