¡Hola! Day 30 - 21k, 236 to go, whittling it down! Left Astorga on a cold clear morning, 9am, body feeling OK except for mid-R foot which soon warmed up to the "no significant pain" level. And then it was on and on, quick stop for coffee and croissant at Santa Catalina de Somoza ( see pic of resident stalk) bit of BS with our Aussie mates from ANZAC Day and then a straight non-stop walk to Rabanal and a nice English Confraternity of St James Refugio.
The community dinner last night was a hoot- paella cooked by Jose the chef - very good, mucho vino tinto then we all had to make a speech saying why we were doing theCamino. I did my speech in Spanish again - and I wasn't quite so nervous this time. There were several languages - Spanish of course, English = the lingua franca of the Camino, French, German, Russian, Korean. Most people spoke English &/or Spanish - very hard for the Koreans who are mostly young. Interesting stuff especially from the monk - who turned out to be a Franciscan. Basically he has no money, survives on donations - he seemed to like the vino a bit too much?? Then after even more vino tinto we all had to stand up and sing a song! Talk about pressure - so representing NZ _ Sal managed to dodge the bullet but Jeff sang the NZ National anthem - Maori Version only! I think it sounds nicer in Maori (all those vowels) and I knew none of the rest of them would understand a word of it! Afterwards I told them the words were in Maori - I think they liked the idea! After that we both went to bed but the party rolled on for another hour or more so it took a while to get to sleep. So we both had to get into a bit of night time "Camino Zen" - or as the Espanols say "tranquilo". Same thing is required when you find yourself in a room full of snorers!!
So the track is going slowly uphill and we are due to get to the Cruz de Ferro in the next couple of days - the highest point on the whole Camino where the Matthew's stone and the Grimmett stone are to be laid - a place where we leave all our sins behind!! Looking forward to it - meantime - Hasta mañana