And when I rounded the corner and saw the hill ahead my heart sank!

After such a lovely morning I wasn’t going to let it beat me. There was no-one around me so I turned up the music (Cage the Elephant ) adjusted my walking poles and strode off. My slow steps, small steps which had gotten me up so many hills and served me so well, I put behind me. It was strong, steady steps that got me up that hill without a stop. I walked for a while, smiling to myself, and came to a cross overlooking a valley and town, and I knew the time and place was right to leave another memento, a card given to me by a friend

Unexpectedly,as I placed the card on the cross tears came. I sat quietly on the steps and let them fall.
As I stood up to leave a young Asian couple who spoke no English came along and were quite concerned. I just pointed to the card and they smiled comfortingly. I love those little interactions on the Camino, they need no language, just feeling.
A last look at the cross and I was off again,

into town to meet D2 who was drinking a beer and talking on the phone to a friend. For once I broke my habit of not drinking anything stronger than a black coffee before I stop for the day, and joined her in a beer

Of course the Camino was not going to let me off that lightly, there was a very high and windy railway bridge and of course the obligatory climb before we made it into Astorga.

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