29 September 2017
Walking Day 17:
22 kilometers
31,055 steps

I am keeping count of my steps from where I start each day to where I am staying that night using a FitBit. A am not counting the steps I take walking around exploring the towns and socializing after I arrive at my destination. Yesterday, I passed 500,000 steps, one day shy of the half way point on the Camino Frances. Kurt Koontz wrote a book about his pilgrimage on the Camino Frances entitled “A Million Steps” in which he estimated his steps to be just short of a million steps (as I recall, he was relatively scientific about it, but it was an estimate). If the rate of my steps continues, I shall hit more than a million by the time I reach Santiago de Compostela.

Today, arriving in Sahagún, is the half-way point on the Camino Frances route of the Camino de Santiago. The actual half-way point has changed as the commonly used route has changed over the centuries, but it is generally agreed that in or at about Sahagún is the midpoint on the way to Santiago de Compostela when starting from Saint Jean Pied de Port in France.

This was another very beautiful walking day on the Camino. I started and walked almost the whole day with Jeff and Tracy from Minnesota. We started just at the official sunrise at 8:15, and as the sun rose, it was quite cool (about 10C or 50F). The sun rose and warmed the day early. Right as we started I noticed willow trees in the adjoining field, something I am not used to seeing, but which I believe might be mediterranean.

So off again and onto the meseta we walked. Today, we are again paralleling the highway N-120. Here, however it is not nearly as busy as we saw between Logroño and Burgos. And, the Camino path is often just far enough away from the highway that it is not too bothersome.

Here we are walking away from the early morning post-sunrise along a row of trees and recently harvested wheat fields which we shall see most of the day.

Sometimes the trees are older and larger and make for a pleasant walk along the wheat fields.

And often there are almost no trees, and we walk along alone in our thoughts.

Here, the path seems to continue forever into a slight valley, on and on, as far as we can see.

We reach a monument announcing the end of the Province of Palencia, and walk into the Province of León, the third province of the nine provinces of the autonomous region of Castilla Y León through which we shall walk.

We arrive on the outskirts of Sahagún and a monument to Alfonso the VI who was a protector of the Camino in the Sahagún area. Here I am at the statue of Alfonso:

Today was not a long day, but it is warm, and I am tired, dusty, and ready for a shower. We crossed the railroad tracks, went into town to find Jeff and Tracy’s hotel, the same one in which I stayed last year. My hotel this year is just before this rail line:

Later, wandering around and exploring the town a little, I found this plaque indicating that Sahagún is at the center of the Camino Frances:

Not many comments today – it was a very nice walking day, toe hotel is nice, the food good, and I am hoping to see Jeff and Tracy again tomorrow for our relatively short 18.5 kilometer walk into El Burgo Ranero.