Day 23 - Free walking

León to San Martin del Camino
26.9km
Accumulated distance 540.9km
It was a bit of a shame leaving my studio apartment in León knowing I was going to an Alburgue in San Martin, a bit of a downgrade from my best stay yet.
I’ve heard many people say the walk out of León isn’t great, some even choosing to bus to the city edge. I actually enjoyed it, the suburbs weren’t particularly smart but nice to see normal life for local people. It took about an hour to get to the edge of town, just enough to earn a coffee and change my pole tips which had worn through.
The good news though, no blisters! My first day since 30 April, more than 450km ago, that I’ve been able to walk freely. And the new boots seem great, hear’s hoping things continue to improve. I had a choice of the “high” route or the “low” route today, I stuck with the shorter high route to go easy on the feet, even though it was mostly adjacent some busy roads. It was worth putting up with the traffic noise to play it safe.
I had a nice morning chatting with Sophie from Edinburgh and her friend Julie (?) from England. I always enjoy the Scottish sense of humour. We parted ways after lunch.
Some interesting happenings for the day included watching a couple of hawks courting each other above me while walking, and then seeing huge flocks of crows circling above and also feeding on the harvested corn fields. I’ve not seen a murder of crows before, there were hundreds of them.
Because I’d chosen to walk slowly to look after my feet I only arrived in San Martin around 3.30pm which meant some walking in the heat, thanks Blunt umbrella you were great.
Moment of the day was observing the crows, my first time seeing so many in one place.Read more