A rebel without a clue.

Black Friday. It's a con ... Can't you see what the TV is doing to you. Dragging you around and making you a slave. Christmas a single day to celebrate Love. Love doesn't increase with the giving of "gifts". If anything giving gifts is a proxy of Love in a loveless kingdom. I popped out to the only Spanish breakfast place I saw on my travels last night. Like all UNESCO world heritage sites McDonald's are slap bang in the centre killing the tourists on the inside while they walk slowly around the museums, churches and castles and are driven blind by the nonsense they read on each stone of merit. Told a sanitised version of the truth. The huge Alcazar sits above my weary head as the rain forecast begins in earnest and I think of the many who built this monster for the few. If I really had to rate a town simply due to the number of perceived historic sites to visit then I understand why a city like Carcassonne, Toledo or York would be a destination for those seek...

Time to get confused with how long I've been on this Camino? On Thursday 7th I left Alicante, on Saturday 16th I took a rest day and today is Thursday 21st: therefore today is the 14th day of walking from Alicante. In that time the only point at which I didn't walk was when a lady in Minaya took me from the Ayuntemento to Hostal Antolín because my boots were drenched and had copious water within so walking in them was impossible. Averaging at least 28kms a day I'm definitely at 400kms already - and this was my initial target! But I'm not in Toledo (the end goal) yet which is two more days away. However tomorrow is going to be atrocious all day - according to all the info on line I've read. And I still don't know whether to leave Tembleque on the Camino del Sureste or Levante! One is longer 31kms but has a town around midway the other is shorter, but has no stopping for 25kms. If I go the shortest way I'm left with longer to Toledo tomorrow with the heavy blu...

Most of this afternoon I have managed to sleep after the longer second section of the Camino today, which is perhaps something missing recently? After Villacañas i decided to leave the suggested Camino and head up towards the hills behind and all along: as it feels La Mancha is losing the plains! Just when I'd got sick to the back teeth of the monotony of the skillet, which bakes beyond human reason in August, there are obviously a rim of mountains ahead. It's been a long time since I actually got to Santiago Compostela on these Ways - June 2013. I've a memory of the crowds of pilgrims the last two times I passed through. But I've learnt quite a lot about the Way, and how you can be alone, since then. This time I've not seen a soul until yesterday when a guy coming up from Murcia stayed at the same Casa. It's his first Camino, which he aims to finish around 25th December in Fisterra and the host, who did my head in a lot with his whittering, gave him such a brea...

Sometimes I get so nervous when I enter a bar where locals are engrossed in their lives. Behind me a guy chicks Euros into a one armed bandit and the old men cluster at the other end of the bar. I am hungry, but a little bored of Tapas on the bar: but this is Spain and this is their way! But sometimes is not heated up properly. It's a little rushed at times: in the microwave for a few seconds only. It needs longer! I am paid up for another day(€20), but now the rain got here. The casa rurale is cold, but calm for the moment. Really I think yesterday in the gentleman's home was too intense for me and I didn't start today in quite the correct manner. Indeed I had to have a second breakfast in Villacañas before set off on the longest part of today. The weather gets to folks here too. It's obvious as they're so used to warm this kind of cold is very difficult to deal with. Today all colour seemed washed out in a pastel haze, and it was total except for a few fragments o...

Locals are up clipping back the vines ready for the next vintage - which shows such dedication considering the amount of labour required to cleanly prune every bushvine? *** Yesterday was a day of lots of vines and little else to occupy the distance to the first "Gîtes d'étape" style accommodation I have seen on the way! It's is known as Casas Rurales and there is another place similar coming along. Today is the first day of a lot of rain. No prevarication today with the fact I must set off in all the waterproofs I brought: even if this means wearing gators too. It's not hot so wearing the trousers isn't the pain in the neck I find when it's warm and humid! Time for breakfast as the TV suggests, untruthfully, the world is going up in flames. 24 hour news is just there to fill the populace with fear. *** After all these years of walking I still don't really know what it is I go hoping to find? There are occasions where all depression and anxiety vanishe...

A huge bed last night, with plenty of layers, and I didn't arise for an evening meal. Now I'm waiting for the Hostal to open its doors. It's a little after seven and I think I can hear folks stirring next to the door into the cafeteria? School buses head off and I must wait patiently. It's another cold morning and I made one mistake when I didn't put my boots in a position to dry: so they're a little damp. No it doesn't open until a quarter to eight: enough time to realise my boots are quite damp. Oh well. My fault. I was tired last night, so stayed in bed once they showed me to my room, but I forgot to deal with my boots. The damp is always the case when I'm sweating, walking through puddles and gore-tex is doing it's worst! Now I'm preparing to carry on a 8:30am. I've a choice of two ways: one misses out a few roads and a town and is 15kilometres, the other offers cafés etc! Missing out the towns and staying rural this morning! "Is it?...

Good night's sleep, occasionally woken by the noise from the heating system, but it's ok. All my clothes are fresh, folded and packed. My shin is still ill and will be every day until I properly rest it? Left the room as I found it and headed out for desayuno before sunrise. Really would like to bathe in a long deep bath soon, but that will also have to wait until Blighty? More churros and chocolate, instead of tostada con tomate, and fresh orange juice from fresh Valencia oranges is very good - Zumex machines I'd never twigged before what their use was as so few people in the early morning seek zumo de naranja. Twenty six kilometres today, but three villages on the way into Toledo Provence then Toboso and tilting at windmills like a fool or someone who yearns for different times? Finally a break along the way where I can get a little brunch. This hasn't happened at all along the Camino between Alicante and now and there is another town prior to the end of the stage tod...