Dont look down....

Yesterday was difficult. The weather held up, but it was a long climb up over the pedraja up some 1100 m altitude. Although the scenery for the climb was breathtaking, up the top I got bogged down again in mud and that was tiring. And worse, upon my arrival i discovered , horror of horrors the beginning of a blister on the bottom of my foot , in just the worst place. All of a sudden I became aware of the distance that separates me from my destination, and also from Juli, my family and friends. We had done the stage Burgos to Ontanas in October 2006 and I arrived exhausted. Now i started to imagine the same walk, with a heavy pack, rain, wind, and a blister, multiplied by 20 days and...bufff.

Things started to improve with a visit from Tio Jose who came to the rescue with compeed miracle blister plasters. He seems to be OK but the loss of Tia Elo has torn a big hole in his life. We had an enjoyable evening sharing a pilgrim menu.

The next day arrived with blue skies and the blister plaster seemed to do the trick. So i set off to cover the 26km to Burgos relieved to see that the rain threatened had not appeared. Serious miscalculation. One hour later I was hastily putting back on my waterproof trousers on the top of a mountain, and bracing myself as the rain, quickly turned once more to snow.

Luckily , the snow only lasted a couple of hours, and following another struggle through mud I arrived at a bar for a second breakfast around 12-30. During this stop, Juli phoned and explained to me all of the comments that people have been leaving me on the blog, and it certainly is such a help to receive all this support. Like my sort of cousin Clare says, I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and each day I will be closer to Santiago.

I am writing this from Nacho s flat in Burgos. Nacho is one of Juli´s closest friends from those endless summers in Quintanavides. He and Isabel have kindly offered me a bed for the night and it is marvellous to have my own space, and relax with Nacho and his family.

Burgos is one third of the way to Santiago, and so represents a significant staging post for me. Tomorrow, I am going to do Burgos to Ontanas, putting one foot in front of the other.