A rebel without a clue.

Happy to be in a warmer environment than the last two nights. And to have reset my attire to fresh. This town is crap. It's a road running between Madrid and Albecate with sour faced solumn men trudging by not acknowledging me. As it's cold, dank and drizzling it's possibly the weather doing it? Some loud and Bolshoi youths stand on a few corners kicking the pavement and kerb for entertainment. Sounds like many British towns during autumn however by July most locals kids will be falling about flaking under the burning sky whereas in the UK it maybe another season of kicking the kerb: if the Tories win. It's my intention to be asleep before nine, warm and toasty, ready for tomorrow and one of the most famous vistas in all of literature: the very windmill sails Don Quixote went tilting at in his blind chivalric stupidity. This means I'm in Toledo Provence and only five days off the goal. My shin is brutal after two or three hours on the way. Popped into the bar neares...

Today I feel fresher. Took me a while to get up from the warm sleeping bag and step out to -1°C in San Clemente. Long John's on this morning. It always looks odd wearing these tight legged affairs, but they are very thermal. Headed out to find café and stumbled around for thirty minutes until a Churros cafe was gathered around by the he Sunday hunting fraternity. Now I'm warmed by chocolate and churros and heading out into the world beyond San Clemente where all the world is still and tinged with a haw frost. Dogs howling and barking and the distant sounds of gun shot: oh this is such a holy day? One where holes are driven into innocence. Then more rain. An hour of very intense, but fine, drizzle and the continuous breeze, which I had forgotten the last few days, as a companion after Santiago de la Torre - a fine ruins of a castle. Biting off chunks the bread and Salchichón secco, which had been bouncing in my lunchbox since Monteforte del Cid, I faced the final hour feeling mo...

A rest day is what I really needed and San Clemente is large enough to hang about in for an extra night. My shin feels less enflamed today too, but I wish my head was in the same vein? Too many local wines yesterday. But it is fine! I will repair soon. Turned inside for an hour. Three separate vibrations of the phone brought me out of the meditation. I forgot to turn the thing off to charge. Oh well. The sun is shining through the light curtains. The room is very cold, but I'm in my sleeping bag snuggled so tomorrow I start again on The Way. I've not much longer to go really between San Clemente, a very pretty place to relax, and Toledo the original capital of Castile, before Madrid. Been around the various parts of town and it's stacked with vintage buildings and nice squares, but there are too many cars. Every road I went down sooner or later one came rumbling down the cobbles and it was getting to me. Then I ducked into a bar for a glass of water and a slice of Tortilla,...

Now it's mud I must contend with and this is really adding to the chin strain as the weight on my feet just doubled. 27.70 33.90 30.84 37.15 26.84 42.61 42.19 16.94 18.85 The distance on The Way each day, without the mileage covered after the walk and prior to bed or before breakfast in the morning. Today was unbearable so what can I do about this shin? I've asked if I can stay here another day, but that has the potential to ruin the vibe! I'm in a very cold albergue on the edge of San Clemente. The local Manchego is divine so I've stopped for a plato and an obligatory Alhambra Verde(reserva 1925) because the other cerveza I've come across is not so nice! My shin is definitely buggered. Oh and the wine is nice too - Puente del Rus - this is the problem I have once I know I'm not walking - alcohol!

The helpful hostess has given me an ice pack for my shin and I recall this is why I didn't actually feel the pain on the way. It was so cold and wet on my ankles that I didn't feel the cluster of pain I had been experiencing, before I got away from La Roda, with every step I took along the path I was upon. *** Jaded. I'm awake going through the routine of getting ready for one more stage. It's not a long one if I decide to go along either of the Camino: Sureste or Levante, leading from Minaya, as they split again before coming back together in Toledo Province in a few days. Thankfully the kind gentleman yesterday put my wet clothes and drenched boots somewhere that by this morning there is no damp in the boots! I've treated the boots as they went through a lot of punishment in the driving intense rain. By noon, when I'd done for the day, the skies were clearing back to standard blue. Today I should opt for another short stage and see how my shin is once I get go...

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...