Camino del Norte Day 2

 We set off after breakfast to walk along a lane between fields of maize to rejoin the camino. After crossing the river (on the wrong bridge) we set off up a long gentle hill, stopping halfway up to don rain gear.

Meandering through the countryside admiring the scenery and local animals.

When we reached the motorway, we were led onto a diversion for works that we couldn’t see. In spite of the diversion we found the planned coffee stop (closed) but fortunately came across another cafe before withdrawal symptoms set in. On the other side of the motorway we followed the railway until we crossed the tracks over a rickety bridge (that seemed to be midway through a makeover) into a rather dismal town that provided lunch not worth describing but adequate.

The next hour or so was taken up with walking around three sides of a massive soda ash works until finally finding some greenery again.

For the following two or three hours we walked up hill and down dale finally reaching Santillana del Mar -a very pretty place but inspite of its name is nowhere near the sea.

I was in no position to look around as I hobbled the last few kilometres.  My feet were a mess. I’m not going to waste time trying to work out what went wrong, I haven’t taken pictures and I’m not going to bore you with a lurid description, but suffice it to say my feet would not have looked out of place on a butcher’s block.  

I’m having a day off walking tomorrow. In the Middle Ages I would have bought a mule, much later I might have hired a sedan chair. I’ll get a bus.