All roads lead to Terradillos de Templarios - Halfway to Santiago.

Firstly to fill you in on yesterdays trek from Fromista to Carrion de los condes, 12.7miles. Despite a really snug bed and a nice deep sleep I only had an average sleep due to a noisy French couple stamping about the room at all hours. The pilgrims menu was really weird too, pasta starter (what I chose) and then you pick your meat. Expecting chips I went for eggs, what arrived was literally a plate of fried eggs and nothing else. Whatever meat you chose you just got it piled on your plate. Think my eggs were off too. So the walk was pretty flat but my shin was giving me problems again until I stopped to take off my fleece, then it was fine for the rest of the day. My legs felt tired despite it being a short walk, maybe all the days catching up with me.

We reached Carrion and chose to stay in a Convent as there were few places to choose from. I had a nap and we played cards to pass the time. We went out for a pilgrims menu and it was my 3rd 5* meal of the camino, really great food.

I slept well and we left this morning at 6:30am, stopping for a coffee and a chocolate pastry thing for breakfast. The next town was 17.1km away and we began the day walking in the dark along a road until we turned off to an old roman road. It was so straight and the surrounding landscape was featureless so it was more of a mental harship than a physical one, especially as my shin is fine now (the odd shooting pain when I bend my foot certain ways in bed). Today´s walk was 16.7 miles and was again on flat ground. I was singing Queen songs to help with the monotony, the funny thing was that we came up to a cross roads and a Stop sign where someone had written 'Dont' above and 'me now' the word Stop. It made me laugh and was the one Queen song I had forgotten so cue lots of singing. There is little else to report about todays walk as not a lot happened, it was really that featureless. We stopped for a coke and a sandwich but that´s not that interesting. We are staying in a town where The Knights Templar used to hang out which is pretty cool, not really sure what they did but they feature a lot in movies and some books I have read so I think it is pretty cool. The Albergue is very new and clean but the rooms are a bit cramped.

Tomorrow we have a choice between a 26.9km (16.7mile) walk to Calzadilla de los Hermanillos which has one place with 22 beds or a 30.7km (19mile) walk to El Burgo Ranero which has two places and a total of 58 beds. I prefer the latter as it gives us a short (18.8km) walk the day after rather than a 24.5km walk and we are assured beds. We shall see though, I am sure we will decide later.

I also learnt yesterday that we have a really challenging 6 days coming up, it has got me quite excited. It begins in 4 days and consists of: Day1- 19.4 miles Villar de Mozarife to Astorga, Day2- The climb up Puerta Irago the highest point of the Camino begins, Day3- Rest of the climb up Puerta Irago (1,505m high) and the steep descent 16.4miles, Day4- 19.2 miles to Malinoseca to Villafranca, Day5- climb up to O´cebreiro 18.7miles and 1,300m high and Day6- the steep descent from O´cebreiro to Tricastela.

I am excited for these 6 days as it will be a real test. If my body survives this test it will leave 5 days till Santiago. I plan to just take it easy and listen to my body, stopping if necessary for a rest. If I can get through these 6 stages in one piece then I will feel like I have really achieved something great. Remind me that I was looking forward to these days as I am sure on day 3 of the 6 I wont be as eager for a tough test.

So that is pretty much it. Bit of a disjointed one, always is when I am trying to cover two days. Not a great deal has happened either. No blisters and no pains, just a bit stiff. Loving all of your comments, they really help. Thankful to be in a good place mentally at the minute as I find that harder to overcome than when my body is putting up a fight. I am happy and slowly plodding along, halfway to Santiago and 240.8miles (387.5km) left. Really missing my family and friends. One thing I have learnt on this trip is that I need people a lot more than I ever thought I did. I was not aware that I relied on the company and love of others so much. Not a bad thing, it has just made me appreciate my friends and family a hell of a lot more. Especially as they put up with my silly ways.