Leaving Seville on the last day of July, I was by no means confident that I could walk the 745 kilometers from there to Puebla de Sanabria in the twenty four days before a train would be delivering AJ there to meet me. I wasn’t even confident that I could survive any significant walking in above 35C degree southern Spain heat. But here I am right on schedule. I have walked an average of 31 kilometers (19 miles) for twenty four straight days with no rest. I even walked a 48 kilometer day. These numbers are far beyond any of my previous efforts. Along the way, I even saw the 44C degree flashing temperature sign in Casar de Cáceres. That’s a scorching 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
All the wheat cropland that I’ve seen since leaving Seville has been already harvested. This puts that operation far ahead of what I used to see as a young attorney practicing in Eastern Oregon where harvesting peaked in mid to late August. Here in Spain all I’ve seen is wheat stubble, in some cases with straw still to be bailed for livestock fodder. From the beginning in Andalucía, I’ve also walked past hundreds of acres of sunflower with stalks already a crisp brown and the seeded heads black. Since Zamora with conditions becoming more temperate, green has been returning to the landscape and I’ve even seen green stalked sunflower with yellow heads not yet ripe.
I meet AJ at the train station at 3 a.m. tomorrow. The good news includes that this is a beautiful, historic mountain town in which we can take a rest day. And we have plenty of time for a more leisurely walk into Santiago from here.
