At sea on the camino, from Hontanas to Itero de la Vega.

I woke up late today. A crime. I left Hontanas at 7 am after coffee and a sandwich stuffed in my pocket. The sun was shining and I couldn't keep a smile off my face. It was gorgeous and I got chatting to a Canadian and a European who spoke French, as he liked to call himself. They really sped me up and I was feeling great. Maybe it was the great news about people coming to see me or the fact it was sunny or for the first time my body was feeling strong. I actually had to take off my coat for the first time today.

However, the sun wasn't strong enough to dry out the mud. So for the first hour I was walking as if on a fish gut smeared wet deck of a ship in high seas. The feet would slip out from under you and if you managed to get the weight of the bagpack balanced over your feet you didn't end up on your arse.

It was a sheer blessing to see a road. Normally it is the other way around that everyone groans when they see the road because everyone with hiking boots doesn't have flexible soles. However mud is another great leveller and the road was a welcome refuge.

We had coffee and orange juice for me (to get rid of the hangover from red wine) and then barrelled on up to the meseta. This is where the Canadians ran past me and I met up with a Swiss man who was sleeping over me last night. He was full of advice such as, " do not let your heart beat above 90 or you will get blisters" he says this as I am the same colour as my red coat puffing and panting to get up onto the flat so I am due a blister to join Pedro quite soon.

It was then that my second oceanic experience came upon me with a whole sea of wheat drifting slowly in the wind, like a silky sea in front of us. The meseta opened up for us and enveloped us in its lush rolling lands. It was just mesmerising to walk through, each field a different shade of green rippling against a blue sky.

We walked In silence until a fountain where a man with a little plastic table handed me coffee and invited me to drink of nature. Well I think that's what he said anyway. The fasties passed me out and I started walking with a lovely Australian woman until Itero de la Vega.

I'm sitting here in the sun, still feeling the sway of walking in my bones.

I'm getting the hang of this I think!

Xx

Buen camino!