Sahagun to Mansilla de las Mullas: 60km+ (with bonus bus trip to Leon!)
Day 17: I had ended up on a different schedule than the two friends (will call then R & J for their privacy sake) who were on the Camino with me. One, J had finally gotten to a doctor after the bottom fell out of one of his cheap shoes on DAY 1 of the Camino and the diagnosis was, he had pulled (near to tear) some tendon and continuing to walk would do irreparable damage. His Camino was done. As the tech and communications person of our group I was working with out travel agent to get him to Madrid and a flight home. He had a phone but only wifi service in Spain. Meanwhile due to my slow walking style and having walked ahead a few towns to Sahagun, my remaining compatriot R was an hour or so behind me. I woke up in Sahagun to this mess and very little way to handle it other than sit tight in the nearest cafe until I could speak directly with the guy in charge of the card that would be used to get J on a plane to the States.
(Yes, I am badly burnt... that is a story for another thread)
Unbenknownst to me, my friend R had decided make some new friends and was taking a slow path with them checking out each town. He had
no idea that J was finally out of the Camino, or that I needed him and his authorization to get J home. He chose to do the Camino sans technology including a phone (this would prove great for him, stressful for me!)
When he finally sauntered into Sahagun at 11:30a I explained the situation and a remedy came for J. He was off to Leon and then on to Madrid and home and we two were united again. The friends he made were continuing their slow walk which permitted me to walk with them. But I had been hatching a plan since that night to do a nice long and relaxing night walk across the meseta as my burns and my ankles were proving to make for a slow pace and being left behind for Leon would be bad.
My INTENTION was to walk to Calzadilla De Los Hermanillos, sleep for the afternoon, take a shower and then sneak out and back on the trail out to the outskirts of town, wait for sunset and then head out across the meseta to Mansilla de las Mulas, have a relaxing and slow breakfast in the morning, nap on a bench and then walk the day to Leon. All together it should be 55.1km but over ~30 instead of my regular speed of 20km over 8 hours. I could do it, and though I hadn't ever been on a night hike, the trail had been incredibly easy to follow since then, the yellow arrows were easy to see! This would be no problem.
I convinced R, and with that, we were off across the hot long meseta trail! When we arrived early in Calzadilla de los Hermanillos, we jumped into bed at the Municipal and took a much needed nap! Around 6 or 7 we got up, grabbed some food and showers and snuck back out on the trail. Thinking back I am sure that no one cared but I felt a small amount of guilt for "wasting" the bed.
We came across a Peregrino we knew who was camping out on the outskirts of town and told him of our plan so he offered his space to let us chill, and we talked and eventually he decided a night hike would be lovely and he'd join us!
As the sun went down, we gathered our gear and prepared for a lovely walk in the dark... But that is not what happened.
At some point our compatriot decided he wasn't into night hiking and wanted to re-camp and just watch the stars and sleep... so he did. And R and I continued on.... and on... and on... but there began several hours where we saw no yellow arrows. And then a T in the road.... to which we decided to go right as we could see more lights that way. It was pretty clear we were lost... around 3am we found ourselves tired and cold and stumbling into a town called La Aldea del Puente. It was dead silent, and pretty obviously NOT on the
Camino de Santiago. We crossed through small streets and quiet courtyards until we found hope: N-625 and a sign that told us EXACTLY how far from Mansilla de las Mulas we were.... around 17km. Summoning every ounce of everything I had we continued in to Mansilla de las Mulas and around 6 or 7am we found a bench to huddle and nap until the cafes opened. Fortunately we saw friends taking a break outside their cafe and joined them for a quick bite. I was able to connect to wifi and after some calculations realized I'd just walked a little more than 60km and the trauma of the stressful night of being lost along with the realization and the adrenaline drop... well lets just say the other 17km to Leon were NOT happening for me.
R decided to keep walking and I opted to take a bus. My thinking was, I'd had a good enough Camino "lesson" to deserve to make it to Leon (and also I had to be in Leon because we were wanting to say goodbye to J as his train wasn't leaving until that evening. Also, the next day I would hold our group's gear while everyone (but me) doubled back to Pamplona for San Fermin as a pause in our journey (R wanted to Run with the bulls).
Not knowing where we were, or if we were going the right way, in the pitch black of the Meseta was hard... and the long long walking were harder, but the next day that I walked I was certainly faster and more agile on my feet, I'd grown from the experience and that was worth it for sure.
So, between 11:30a and 7:00am (19.5 hours) we walked a little over 60km and R walked 78km!
Me, happy to be somewhere with a bed.