October madness..

Sunday was the annual trip to Dunwich beach with the Jesus green outdoor swimming people.

As Geoff is home early from his walking trip we were able to go.

We left Cambridge as the sun was breaking through with the  promise of a warm day and  arrived in Dunwich in cloud and mist with the temperature barley above 12 deg.

We then joined 20 other people for a swim in the sea… passers by looked at us all in amazement.

As I am scared of this sea it was a great achievement for me to stay in and swim around  for 20 min’s.

Then it was out and off for fish and chips to warm up.

The mad thing was we did a 160 mile round trip and did not go for a walk on Dunwich heath  🙁

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More Photos can be seen here  and  here

Shocking….

Shocking pink is the colour of the DAB radio that my boys got me as a birthday present.

I have wanted one of these for months as I can not get a decent radio reception on my other radios.

Now I can listen to radio 2 and radio 4 as its just brilliant, well worth waiting for.

Why did I choose that colour….. well I thought it would stop my boys from borrowing it 🙂

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My Passport….

When you walk any of the Camino long distance walks in Spain you need a passport.

Its known as The Credencial del Peregrino.

The Credencial del Peregrino,  is a sort of pilgrim passport that is stamped along the way and serves as proof at Santiago that you have indeed followed the pilgrim route and deserve a Compostela.

The Compostela is the certificate awarded at the end of the journey.

The passport  is also required if one intends to stay at any of the refuges along the camino .

Alas mine only has 6 stamps……. so no Compostela for me just yet 🙂

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Brilliant Sunshine…all the way

We did most of our walking in 30deg sunshine, I never expected it to be that hot and I loved to see the sun in late September/early October.

I did feel the heat on day four which was our longest walking day of 38km, by the time we finished my legs were sore with sunburn 🙁

Although this is a very quiet walk we did meet a few lovely people, there was Andrea from Germany with her Polish boyfriend also Michael and Manuel who shared breakfast with me on my birthday 🙂

Here are a few photos….

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you can find all my photos here

My Journey…along The Via De La Plata

My week in Spain took me from Seville to Los Santos de Maimona.

Walking along The Via De La Plata

The Via de la Plata is the longest of the pilgrim routes in Spain, starting from Seville in Andalucia, and running northwards through the proviinces of Extremadura and Castilla y Leon to Salamanca and Zamora. spain 020

Day 1  Seville to Guillena … 23km

Day 2 Guillena to Castilblanco de los Arroyos …19km

Day 3 Castilblanco to Almaden de le Plata ….28km

Day 4 Almaden de la Plata to Monesterio ….38km

Day 5 Monesterio to Fuente de Cantos….. 22km

Day 6 Fuente de cantos to Santos de Maimona …..31km

Total distance walked was 161km but this did not include the miles we walked looking for food, bars,and free wi-fi connections so I certainly broke my 100 mile target 🙂

It was an amazing week and once again I cannot find the words to thank Geoff enough for giving me this fantastic opportunity.

The end of the road – for me.

Today was my last walking day and my birthday too
We had a nice 22km walk planned. Into zafra.where the plan was to find a nice hotel and enjoy a meal to celebrate my birthday
On arriving in zafra after a real enjoyable walk we found the place heaving with people due to a local fair . There was no place to stay so we had to carry on to los santos de maimona just another 5km but by the time we arrived my legs were in agony from sun burn again .
So tonight we find ourselves in a youth hostel all on our own sleepng on a mattress on the floor and just a trickle of cold water for a shower .
We are now back in town looking for food . Certainly a birthday I will not forget.

Pain and pleasure

Posted by mobile phone:
If you ever wonder what its like to walk 24 miles let me tell you its long hot and very dusty . We started at 8am in 15 deg and finished 10 hours later in 30 deg so got that my calves were red raw with sun burn . The pain has been sorted with aloe vera and now the pleasure comes in realising that i have walked 24 miles its a great feeling believe me and one not to forget quickly