Paint My World: Day 15 - the path has made liars of us

Short day my Aunt Fanny...we left Leon much later than our usual (slept in until 8:00, we did) thinking to only walk the 7 km to La Virgen del Camino. But urban sprawl has obscured the first little town completely, so when we stopped for a drink, low and behold, we were already at our destination, feeling like we hadn't really walked anywhere. So we decided that we were feeling very good,and it was only 15 km to tomorrow's destination...well, heck, we can do 15 in what feels like no time.

There's the rub...ya think you are so smart...there are two paths after La Virgen, one follows the main road and the other is the walkers path (more shade, no road noise, you know, all the things that make for pleasant walking). It's not that we weren't aware and watching, because we both were constantly checking for yellow arrows to the left,well, there are obviously times when even two heads aren't enough, cause about 5 km down the road, we entered a town that was on the road path And far too 'down the road' to even consider turning back.

The km are very similar, just the ROAD!!!on the one. Remember I said that we left later than usual...up later, took time to have breakfast, and then assembled our packs in prep for a short little day...well that meant that we didn't clear Leon til almost 11:00, and as the furies and the ages would have it, today was a scorcher.

By 1:00 when a coffee bar finally came into view, we were seeing mirages, everything looked close but no matter how long we walked, it didn't seem to get much closer. Finally we shuffled into a bar, chugged down some water, and the bar keep, who must have taken pity on our overheated little selves, set out a plate of cake and cinnamon toast just to be nice. Hoping we were near to the albergue, I asked how far...another 2 km. feeling much revived we headed off...only to start giggling just steps into the next few km. there were two motorcycle policia at the bar and I asked them in my very broken Spanish 'how hot is it today?' The answer was 28. We kept hoping that they would be knights in shining armour (or on shining motorcycles) and offer, if not rides the the albergue, to take our packs...no such luck...trudge trudge trudge.

Notice a lack of photos? It was too darned hot. To stop, get the iPad from the pack and then. Put the pack on again...besides, we were beside a road the whole way!!!