A rebel without a clue.

Full to busting from lunch. Thank you Minaya. And the people in Hostal Restaurante Antolín for helping me in such a difficult moment. Now I'm most worried by my right shin. Both feet are a little tender, but this will pass, however my right shin is truly inflamed. It wasn't there yesterday, but this morning there was an obvious tenderness. While walking in the down pour it was the most difficult aspect, including being soaked by the time I arrived here in Minaya. Perhaps I go ask the hosts if they have any cream along the lines of Voltaren? Otherwise I am busted for tomorrow. I'm due a day off but does this mean I have to stop moving? It got unbearable but the cold, wet and the road took my entire pain threshold: only once I stopped did it become the dominant feature of eight days on this blasted way! This hotel is both a local and a truck drivers passing point. The lady behind the bar gave me Voltaren 100mg tablets. But they're not localised. The local pisshead tells m...

So tired this morning. Being in the Mercado, as the day begins, isn't a sign I am awake! Clearly as I yawn over my cup I'm having troubles. What could I do without coffee on a morning when my whole body is reaching for oxygen. My right shin is aching this morning too. Inflammation requires rest. Today is only 16 kilometres. Is this rest? Some people who walk everyday on Camino walk less some days and consider that a rest. Back on my first Camino I had a 15 kilometre day before I reached Aumont-Aubrac and then had a day off before the day I got caught in a snow/hail/sleet storm in May 2013. When I saw the Tour Anglais in Aubrac at 1300 metres I was so relieved! Once I deposited my backpack in the Tour I realized everything in my sack was drenched! *** That was as much as I could do. I've never been so wet. I was walking in buckets of water as the rain poured into my boots. For the final five kilometres I couldn't feel my feet or hands and the cold was spreading up my arm...

Another day down. Should it be this way? From tomorrow the stages are a little closer together so I feel a more leisurely pace and later set off time. Mostly I love walking around or just after sunrise bit the last few days the afternoon has gone on and on. Ducked into the first bar in La Roda for obligatory Alhambra Verde, but they also have Roja so it's two. Walked passed an inglorious number of battery farms catering to the carne lovers. My lunch, in a town which feels days ago, was a mountain of the schweinefleisch which is dictated by Spain's love affair with all parts of the pig. It got me here into La Roda without losing my mind in the awful windy and cold weather that was against me, but now I feel I've been a bit unkind just eating whatever was available in the tapas display wherever I went. In the previous town I asked for beans(frijoles) but she only had Tortilla on the veggie front. *** The Albergue Today is at the edge of the town as I came in and I really don...

The rule which states that 24hr news must be relayed in every café in the world is definitely part of the problem. It's either that or some overwhelming music - on the radio or TV channel banging against the head of morning peace. It's planned to keep the masses in their fearful places stressed by the projection. In my society all TV would be banned in such social places as cafés  - in days gone by they were a forum for the disenfranchised who could go to discuss, consider, debate and change the way. Or I'm I wrong? Are the lower classes ever going to overrule the ways of the 1%? The peasants will remain peasants and perhaps that's a good thing ... It's time to leave another café for another day on The Way. The gentleman running the bar tells me it's going to be very fresh today - I ask does it ever stop being windy on La Mancha ... This is The Way and I'm definitely winning time off in Purgatory - whatever. Guilt has driven me mad! What have I really done t...

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...