Day Five. breakfast.

It's freezing this morning - la Mancha for it's temperature ups and downs. Heading across the road for breakfast of champions: tostada con tomate and to listen to the jumble of voices I cannot fathom - their conversations could be witty, dense, deep or banal and I will never know. Politics in Spain heading to extremes it seems: haven't we been here before? Could there be a military Junta in the 21st century? If only all politics could put aside their differences to find the common ground, but humans don't like to compromise. We want to control existence in all its guises!

Something didn't digest so well during my sleep and I work up with palpitations, sweating heavily and thinking I'd left with the keys! How strange as I was still in bed! Less intense day today. 20 something kilometres. Apparently there is a pilgrim a day behind me: the host of the Albergue wanted to give me a lift forward yesterday but I refused and he informed me. If I take a rest day at some point I will meet him?

A Camino is never a race, although yesterday I got a little desperate to see the village over the next hill, around the next bend and I was guessing which distant structures could be it? Eventually I missed the turning off the road and had to cut through vineyards where the soil was very deep and hard going in areas. When I finally saw the church tower I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Days like yesterday, of 35+ kilometres are fairly frequently on the Way, but the weather is the other master of destiny: I was losing my sanity as the gales made every footstep like a different gravity was having an effect on my body! Today I'm pretty calm because I am over that and I've conquered another foe!