Day 22: Leon to Mazarife

I practically ran out of the city at 0600. The street cleaners were hard at work by 0530 and mountains of trash were being quickly loaded into trucks, the streets pressure washed, and everything made tidy. Once I got 8 kilometers out of town, into a small suburb of the city, I saw a group of pilgrims pondering their guidebooks. An unmarked spilt in the path was confusing everyone. Once the correct route to Mazarife had been established I jumped into the front group of four and started my click-clack hiking pole pace. Two horse women from the states were making fast work of the trail while I followed with Colin, one of my original Camino family from St. Jean. Together we blazed out fourteen miles!

We passed more earthen homes, cheese caves, wine cellars.

It felt good to hike at a fast clip, finishing our stage for the by 11am, fifteen miles in five hours. Colin and I decided to stay at the marvelous Hostal Tia Pepe. We were lucky that we got there so early as we got the last double room! Here we met a great couple from Austria on their second day of a shorter Camino of four weeks. We also reunited with the Texas A&M students and faculty. It was a nice time in a very friendly little agricultural town. Of course I had to venture out after nap time to watch the farmers and talk to folks. The little town seemed filled with tractors, implements, ag stuff everywhere. Corn was just coming up and the last of the hay was coming in. Potato fields were getting thick with foliage and every house was climbing with roses and beautiful gardens.

Colin's Camino tattoo. 

We really appreciated the extra time to rest as tomorrow our hike is twenty miles to Astorga, but it was such a pretty little town neither one of us was in a hurry to leave.

Resting St. James with our Hostal window behind.

View from my room! Clattering storks everywhere.

Protected by EU conservation law, stork nests and the birds are national treasures.

Another beautiful Castilian horse. Platinum mane and tail.