Section 18 A Sahagun to Manzanilla de las Mulas

May 1, 2025 Sahagun to El Burgo Ranero. Distance 11.22 miles. Weather 60s and partly sunny. Thankfully the bad storms overnight cleared out and I had a dry walk to El Burgo, a town of 231 people. The town’s name means town of frogs

It also had some of the biggest stork nests I’d seen to date.

Not much to report today- straight and flat walk. The highlight of the walk in the guidebook was (and I’m not kidding), walking under the overpasses for the freeway and the high speed train.

I had an option to take the Roman road today, but that would have diverted me from my already reserved accommodation for tonight and tomorrow night, so couldn’t do it.

I guess the other thing that happened was I got food poisoning at dinner. I was seated by myself and ordered a salad and the pork cutlets. A few minutes later a Dutch man sat next to me who was cycling the Camino Way. He had the same thing. I was able to sit and talk through his dessert when I calmly told him I was falling asleep. I made it upstairs just in time to drop everything and get to the bathroom where I stayed for the night. Suffice to say I got no sleep and prepared for what I hope will be my worst day on the Camino (in other words, I hope things can’t get any worse….)

May 2, 2025 El Burgo Ranero to Manzilla de las Mulas. Distance: 11.88, weather: rainy and in the 60s. I finally now know that the mountains to the right are called the Picos de Europa - curiosity satisfied.

Another flat and boring walk along the roadside, add to this rain, no sleep and an unsettled tummy. Breakfast was water (was terribly dehydrated) and plain yogurt which I couldn’t eat because it had sugar added and it tasted terrible. Add to that that the only dry rest stop was 8 miles into an 11 mile day. This stop was at the town of Reliegos (Palantia in Roman times). It’s claim to fame is that three Roman roads converged here. All together not a fun day, but I made it.

Manzilla was once a market town of horses, mules and donkeys (las Mulas). The town has long served as a perimeter defense for neighboring Leon and boasts 3/4 of its medieval walls remain. It has 2 things to see - the Museum of Culture and the Church of Santa Maria and this passed the time until the hot water could be fixed in my Pension.

Dinner was at a nearby restaurant where I had dinner with the gay couple from Australia - Kat and Emms. I managed to keep down a salad, half a serving of pasta and most of a beer.

The bed was wonderful and I slept like the dead for 9 hours.