A rebel without a clue.

Sublime walking experience clear blue crisp, grass to walk upon, passing Laguna after Pétrola! The main way misses out Chinchilla, but why? For three days it's been me and wind! Why miss out lunch on a mountain top. My arse must shrink and expand easily: suddenly I've a case of chaffing like no other ...but it was 36 Kms straight ahead! Oh nice it was forty-two kilometres. That's it, you won La Mancha! Apparently it gets colder and windy-er ... Can't wait. Showered and to bed. Definitely need a soothing cream for my nether regions!

Not such a perfect Albergue last night. Next to the church the bells rang every quarter of an hour and twice on the hour. I had many 10 minute intervals of sleep. Luckily from 1700 until 2230 I was so exhausted I didn't really register at all the blasted things. Today is either 22 or 35 kilometres ... Chinchilla or Albecate. But I really feel flawed. La Mancha is breezy and cold. Cool to be on the plateau I've read much about, but now I understand how inhospitable a place it really is! Walking in July and August must be a different kind of personal murder. The purpose of Camino de Santiago is penance for sins and half of the penance is the self flagellation of carrying so much stuff through such a desolate environment: it often reduces me to tears ... So far not this time, but it's only my third day in amongst nothing but my bare self! Time to eat Tostada con Tomate and contemplate another long road ahead? Yet this is the trap. It's only a step at a time, not a race and...

Another boring day. Perhaps without the wind directly in my face I'd not be pushing myself to arrive so hurriedly to the end of the walking day! There was a small highlight when I crossed through a small regional park with dwarf oak trees, leaning together against the frigid winds, where I stopped for lunch huddled against their shelter from the gale which gave me a chill yesterday when I stopped for food!  Once passed this promentary I had the longest straightest boring-ist section of 7 kilometres I've every had - actually Landes was far more boring, except for the tree cover! Now I'm in Pétrola and I can't be bothered to move - some fine olives and a beer, but I feel weary suddenly! *** In every Albergue a different challenge. This one I can't recall how to light a calor gas fire. I'm holding down buttons and I'd made sure the canister is full. But I'm lost. It used to be the time the button was held down ... But really it's so long since I sat nex...

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 ...

Saved by the vines. It was the longest day! 35 Kms into a gale. It's the hardest day I've know. Gladly it didn't rain. Some ominous clouds along the horizon, but they, somehow, stayed there! Today was exceptionally tough. Now I am enjoying local Jumilla wine, but the locals seem unimpressed by the wonderful thing they have all around them Monastrell grape is divine to eat and the wine is definitely helping me off to a warm bed! It's only old men holding up the bar I stumbled into and the first one I struck, before I was taken to my bed for Sunday, the girl behind the bar is their granddaughter and she's totally in control. The tapas is good and the vino is exceptional. I'm heading to the Restaurante near where I'm sleeping and if it's not open I keep warm until another day beckons! *** 101 years since the end of the "war to end all wars" and wars are still happening as the result of western imperial arrogance, Russia ignorance and, usually, mal...

The same old questions. Why keep at this? The relentless pushing pushing to reach what exactly? Over just the next crest of a hill is the truth I seek. Searching for what? Which moment of truth am I hoping to have spring out of the mind in which it's locked away? Stop here for a cup of tea. Then I start up a usual high street. Where two routes converge. The one from Benidorm meets the one I'm on from Alicante. The sign of the Camino says stop again. So a copa vino Vinalopõ and tapas. I will continue again shortly. Unexpectedly today I had to find a bush in emergency and then, more or less, directly afterwards a migraine. My body rejecting some melancholic disposition as a different way lies ahead? Or simply a few days of too much meat with little vegetable, fruit and too many excellent wines? Soon I will be in La Mancha tilting at windmills like the buffoon I am! *** Food was calzone. And I'm yawning. But I'm kind of caught in the other Spanish obsession: Barcelona or R...

Well, no I didn't sleep well.  Firstly the bar next door was loud until early Saturday morning. The room has no Aircon or if it has it only appears to be warmer with it on. Just like on another Friday night, not so long since, I simply couldn't find a light switch or the toilet door in the pitch dark so did a pee pee on the floor! The room needed the shutters and blind down, as there is a bright street light next to the window in the passageway between two streets. Stumbling around this room, because I'd forgotten how it was orientated, I ran out of time on my bladder. Perhaps drinking too much doesn't help? I do feel tarnished. What is wrong with me? I know why I am in Spain: to leave behind the other person I dislike so much! After all I am walking for better mental health. So now I am aware of how easily I forget why I come away to throw my body at gradients, paths, dust, rocks, mud, etc because it really works. The real walk begins today. Remember this is the way ba...