It's now true that we are halfway there to Santiago. There was no marker at all but because a lot of people join the Camino from so many points all over Europe it might seem parochial to just celebrate those starting from the French Pyranees. It was a very hard day mainly because it is hot again and we had to walk the first 17 km without a shop or cafe and the straight path did seem endless. There was one enterprising Spanish guys half way along this stretch selling cold drinks and ice cream. It was wonderful. And after the first 17km we then had a further 13 km to do passing through v small and what seemed like quite poor villages. I can't imagine what some of these places would be like without about 300 pilgrims going through a day. There is a real shortage of accommodation and for those on a budget saying at the Albergues and hostels, the beds are all gone by midday. People have no option but to keep walking. We feel lucky that we can throw a few euros at the problem and find a hotel, but some people especially the young ones are doing it on less than 25 euros a day for everything. So we ended up in a nice new place run by a young couple who have a beautiful 6 month old baby called Isabel so I had a cuddle with her tonight. We celebrated with some nice Ribera Del Duero which I hope all our sophisticated wine drinker friends are now ordering everywhere. They were cutting hay in some of the fields we were passing today so I think the weather must be settled for a few days. Both of us tired and a bit sun burnt tonight but feeling good that we've made it so far. We we stuck whether to use a quite arty photo of the long road taken today but in the end chose the donkey from the village. And tonight's disco tracks are Give me some Loving by Stevie Winwood and Hot Stuff which was in the Full Monty but I don't know who it's by.