Wow, this week has flown by. We moved on on Monday 26th March to La Posada de Santuario, Santa Maria de Nava, Castilla y León, which was wonderful. It’s in the middle of nowhere, really in nature. We needed this after the previous day of rain and snow, it was all a bit frantic in parts. but this place calmed us all down. The guy Miguel who was looking after us was great, a real cheeky chappie, and he showed me photos of bears (which he had seen about 30kms from where we were), and wolves. It really was a special place. The day after we moved on to the Convent Santa Maria de Mave and all I can say about this hotel and the church attached was WOW. It has to be the most amazing place I have ever stayed in, in my life. It was modern meets super old but well done. It was incredible. We stayed there 2 nights then moved on again to the Hotel Dona Mayor in Frómista where we stayed 3 nights, again amazing people, incredibly helpful.

I actually started running again after years of not running, I started with just a km or so on Thursday with Julia, Alfie and Ellie, then the next day I ran about 2-3 kms with Julia in the bitter cold, the tears were rolling down my face. Yesterday I ran a bit more! Again 3-4 km into Frómista with Julia and Ellie. That was better, not so cold! Julia is doing amazingly well, she tanks it, but her feet suffer when it’s wet in particular, and cold isn’t great either but she is managing her feet, in fact the feet are an entity in themselves, lotions, potions, strapping. But she is SO determined. We will make it…She will make it! We are the “support” team. It turns out Frómista is right slap bang on the Camino de Santiago and has 3 amazing churches and last night we found a restaurant where we had our customary glass of vino tinto and it was like walking into a parlour/drawing room from the 40s or 50s, lace curtains and so beautifully old fashioned. The reference to the chanting, mantras and stretching is the daily routine, which starts at 0730/0800 with a 20 min mantra, then 7pm or so, is stretching, which I sure needed after running, and chanting, oh yes, I have embraced my inner Zen. Now I am moving again, I’m going to catch Jack up on the route, then moving onto Ampudia where we stay 3 nights.