Leaving Sahagún behind coincided with a lovely drop in temperature. Gone were the highs of 35°C – 37°C, instead we had a positively chilly high of only 27°C 🥶 😅.

It also meant choosing between the biggest detour on the way: stick with the main route, or – as we did in 2024 – take the Calzada Romana (Roman road).

Taking the main route would offer some shade, but also take us alongside a road the entire way to Mansilla de las Mulas. Taking the Roman road would offer very little shade but have far less traffic.

Given we’d already experienced the Calzada Romana in 2024, we decided to try the main route this time. To be honest, being by the road wasn’t much of a pain as the road was hardly busy most of the time.

Our first port of call was El Burgo Ranero, and this was also the first time on either Camino that we’d arrived anywhere without booking accommodation in advance. This wasn’t because we got complacent, more that various hostel owners either didn’t respond to our requests or just shouted angrily down the phone at us before hanging up (El Peregrino Hostal: you really could do with a lesson in manners… I even spoke to you in Spanish).

Thankfully, there was a donativo (pay what you think is suitable) hostel available on a first-come, first-served basis, and with 32 beds we figured we’d be OK if we turned up half an hour before they opened (spoiler: we got in with no problems at all).

El Burgo Ranero was also home to a lot of tree art… or at least trees that had been anthropomorphised 🤷‍♂️.

While waiting for the hostel to open, we made another field lunch and attracted the attention of a local cat. It took a lot of work to stop it jumping on the freshly-sliced smoked cecina purchased in Sahagún!

The next day we made for Mansilla de las Mulas, which is where the main and Roman routes combine again into a single route. There’s not much to tell about our stay here, other than we had two entire dormitories totalling 44 beds all to ourselves!

We’ve no idea how this happened, given last time we stayed in the same place (El Jardín del Camino Hostel), it was absolutely packed… but certainly it does seem to be a lot quieter this year with fewer people walking.

We ate dinner with a couple of Italians that we’d been overtaking on and off along the way, and ended up drinking probably more than we should have… but it was a fun evening and we didn’t seem to have suffered for it the next morning.

With León now only a day away, we headed off (being sure to wake up the guard turkeys in the property opposite our hostel), and made our way out of town.

A few googly eye opportunities presented themselves, but the walk – for me, at least – was mainly spent trying to avoid a rather nasty chafing issue that had developed. A quick drink break after 6km and taking the opportunity to apply some talc brought that under control, thankfully!

The walk into León seemed to take forever, as you hit the outskirts a good hour before arriving at the cathedral. However, the views are great and you get to see just how big León is.

We’re just finishing our rest day, and have taken the time (naturally!) to visit another Michelin-starred establishment, Restaurante Cocinandos, located in a lovely old building sandwiched between the equally impressive Parador de León hotel and Convento de San Marcos.

We also called in at Marcela Brasa y Vinos, a restaurant that we believe is home to the best cheesecake on the Camino. We’ve tried many, but this one is truly outstanding 🤤.

Tomorrow we head for Villar de Mazarife, where – perhaps as penance for the vast quantities of meat eaten this weekend – we’re staying at a hostel that specialises in vegetarian food. I will report back on this later 😀.