Date: 3 October 2018

Departure Time: 07:31 am
Arrival Time: 1:55 pmDistance: 23.3 kms
Cumulative Distance: 615 kms
Percentage Completed: 66.58 %
Accommodation: Plaza Mayor
Weather: Warm sunny day – 28 degrees

Today was a reasonably pleasant walk. We initially walked through urbane outskirts and small towns that weren’t particularly exciting. The second half of the day’s walk was through vineyards and pretty vistas. The highlight of the walk was seeing grapes being harvested by hand. We stayed in a charming town called Villafranca del Bierzo, which gets its name from the surrounding green mountains.

We caught up with eight other pilgrims for dinner – 7 who were from Australia. During dinner we reflected that one of the best aspects of the Camino experience is the ease at which one can meet people whereas, in normal society, talking to random strangers would seem odd.

We continue to be incredibly fortunate with the weather and we have no physical ailments. Blister update – all seem to be healed and tomorrow Mark expects to walk with no bandages, strappings, compeeds or anything else remedial/preventative on his feet.

Tomorrow we undertake, what was last year, one of the most boring days of the Camino, walking entirely alongside a bitumen road to Las Herrerías.