Weary ramblings by:

Day 1 - Leon to La Robla

 Day 1 - Leon to La Robla


Well, that was tough! A lot tougher than I was expecting, but also a lot prettier in parts. I’d like to put the difficulty down to the terrible sleep I had the night before (due to the insane amount of noise that the Spanish make whilst partying on a typical Saturday night), however, it’s probably due to my lack of trail fitness. 


Today can be summed up as a tale of four distinct quarters - Riverside walk, hills, a nice bit through quaint villages, and then a not-so-nice bit. Let’s break them down. 


The riverside section wasn’t amazingly beautiful by any means, but it was nicer than the alternative road walk and was certainly one of the nicest exits to a big city I’ve had on the Camino. So far so good. 


The hills that followed were steep at times, however, they were probably made tougher by being the first hills I’ve had to tackle in a while.  If these had been towards the end of the Camino, no problem. I’m going to consider this a warm-up for the next couple of days’ mountainous terrain. 


Once the hill section was complete there was a lovely flat section alongside the river, through quaint villages with heavily-laden fruit trees, followed by tunnel-like canopies of trees. I’m certain it comes as no surprise when I say that this was my favourite section. I did not expect this at all and was in high spirits throughout. 


Then, however, I reached a fork in the road. One promised asphalt, and one promised earthen trails. I chose the latter despite it being an extra kilometre. After half an hour I wished that I hadn’t. There was zero shade, it wasn’t particularly nice terrain, the trail circled a coal-fired power station, and it was definitely longer than the promised six kilometres. By the time I reached my accommodation in La Robla, I was beat.  Nothing that a shower, a power nap and a few Estrellas can’t fix though. 


Distance - Apparently 26.5 km, but I’m calling bullshit. 


Difficulty - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5


Camin-oh no! - My last “six” kilometres. 


Camin-oh hell yeah! - Ibuprofen. 



@caminoagogo