Quinto día de Meseta!

Another earlier start in order to beat the heat of the afternoon sun. Pretty, calm and peaceful walking along and besides streets quiet on this Easter Sunday morning, across the typical bridge out of town and then soon enough back into countryside.

And excited to spend a large part of the day walking along the actual, real, original Roman road (maybe with some new gravel overlay applied once or twice in the last two millennia) that led from Bordeaux to Astorga, where we’ll all end up in a few days’ time. In classic Roman fashion the road is still flat as a tack and straight as an arrow, and quietly impressive in its endurance over such a span of time.

After a long and increasingly warm track thru countryside, eventually hit the only intermediate town of the day – Calzadilla de la Cueza – which provided an excellent spot for a cold drink by a field’s edge.

Back to the track, now with added bonus of adjacent highway but very lightly-trafficked, and the lands turning drier. Up a very wee hill to the “high” point of the day, and the snow-capped mountains to the north reared back into view to our right. Incredible, as they have been every day they’ve been visible.

Then curling down and around a small outcrop, and a patchwork of fields now rolling into view to the west, and the town for tonight – Lédigos. Turns out, this hosts one of the best albergues any of us had seen. Japanese-style “capsule” beds in our dorm, and the building wrapped around a luxurious internal grassed courtyard. In the rising heat, the afternoon felt like a slice of summer vacation. Dinner in their restaurant was a perfect cap to a slightly tiring, yet very peaceful, day on this Camino.

That’s now 17 days walked and 16 remaining. Not quite at halfway by distance, but into the second half by time. All very happy with this milestone, and ready for another Meseta day on the morrow, with higher temps forecast and also more bracing blue skies.

Stats for today:

• 23.5km approx.
• 109m ascent
• 82m descent
• 17km of path without any towns or facilities, the longest stretch since the Pyrenees