Cistierna to Mansilla de las Mulas 48km

Before I start, I didn’t have a plan to walk so far today. I didn’t really have a plan at all when I started. I’d considered some options but just decided to start walking and see what happened.

Somehow I do get a good night’s sleep in my shelter, yes the sleeping mat is a bit thin, so I wake up occasionally to change hips. Once I’m in my sleeping bag (with silk liner) and that is inside the bivvy bag, I’m really snug. It was cold this morning (I take everything back about it being warm yesterday). I got up for the loo about 7:00, it was freezing. It was just getting light but with the mountains around the sun wasn’t going to hit anytime soon, so I went back to bed. My only time constraint was to be at the supermarket at 9:00, when it opened. Eventually, I did get up, if I had waited for the sun to hit, it would have been nearly 9:00. It was so cold packing everything up, I put two jackets on, and would have put on gloves (had I not forgotten them). I dropped €10 and a note in the postbox (as a pilgrim I feel a duty to be honest, same as normal) and headed to the supermarket. The only people in it were English students ( ?) in hi-viz waist coats, and carrying white hard hats. I should have asked, but I wasn’t 100% sure they were speaking English (being students), until later when I was drinking a coffee. Presumably some sort of field trip, unless there are now British labourers in Spain, post brexit, like “Auf Wiedersehen, Pet”. I picked up my lunch and had a quick coffee in the supermarket bar (!), and headed off.

It was 90% through agricultural land today, with some short stretches on quiet roads. The main feature was bird life, as opposed to butterflies yesterday. There were cuckoo calls everywhere and lots of small birds flitting in the bushes. At one point I could see what I thought might be a big white dog in the road (ringing alarm bells in my head). It turned out to be a stork, which flew off when I got close. There were lots of storks nesting. They are positively encouraged with nesting platforms on churches and other buildings.

There was an incredible row coming from some ponds. I couldn’t see what is was, but pretty sure some wild fowl making a racket. Shortly after the first time I’d heard this,there was an even worse noise. It didn’t sound like a bird, I was think a donkey, or something in pain. I rounded a corner into a village, and there was a man with some sort of “musical” instrument under his arm. There was also five or so ladies sat on a bench. I think he had been showing off.

The day continued, it was very easy walking, all in a straight line and downhill. I reached Gradefes, where I knew there was an albergue. The description I read was that it was small and on the entry to the village (and you may need to ask at the bar for keys). Had I seen it I may have stopped to enquire. Instead, I stooped at a cafe for my now traditional “dos coca” (one isn’t really enough) and pondered my options. Id walked 25km, and felt good so was keen to get as close to the Camino Francés as possible. The solitary nature of the Vadiniense was being to take its toll. Although, typically, I did chat to a guy in the bar about the route. There was a short cut to a campsite near Leon about 30km, try to book something in Mansilla de las Mulas, which is on the Francés, or try to find the albergue in Gradefes. I found somewhere good in Mansilla, with a check in open to 22:00, so I was off on the last bit of the Ruta Vadiniense.

As soon as leaving the village, the huge albergue became evident. It was too late to change plan (and would have been the wrong thing to do) so I carried on.

An interesting feature of this area has been the highly complex irrigation system that is built using concrete channels around the fields. In the distance I could see much bigger canals (aquaducts) stretching into the distance. Its not clear how, or who, operates it as it must need a lot of cooperation between the individual farmers. It would be easy for one to take the water, while miles away at the end of the line there would be none. The precision to get a gradient on every channel and the overall complexity of the system is quite impressive.

I got into Mansilla in good time. It’s the biggest town I’ve seen for a while and even has city gates. I’m only going to walk 25km to Leon tomorrow, so should have time to look around.

One thing to correct from an earlier post was that I had made an “Ecky Thump” hat out of a handkerchief. The “Ecky Thump” hat was a massive flat cap made by The Goodies on TV. Which would have been a remarkable achievement. What I was thinking of was the “Gumby” from Monty Python. I still haven’t bought a hat. The only one I’ve seen has too much of a MAGA feel to it. Now I’ve reached the Camino Francés I’ll take some shorter days and hopefully find time to buy a hat.