When I'm at home and take a 7 mile hike I feel like I've done a really good day's exercise. Here it almost feels like cheating. But there's no way I was going to walk the 18 miles to Astorga. So it was a relatively easy day. Reminded me of those great early Beatles songs that were so short and catchy that they left you wanting more.

I was back in the country today after those long urban treks. It wasn't serene or meditative though; the path was still adjacent to a loud and busy two-lane highway almost the whole time. Trucks barreling by, and drivers in cars taking significant risks passing them. Sometimes the path was on the same level as the road, sometimes in a gully next to it, sometimes in the open sun, sometimes under a canopy of trees, sometimes through thick brush. Much of the time the path was right next to a series of irrigation ditches and the plant growth was very aggressive there. At one point I was surprised at how much the weeds intruded on the path. I would have thought that with the thousands of pilgrims making their way through, the growth would be beaten back. But I guess this time of year the growth is particularly vigorous. I had to be careful. There were aggressive thick stalks with large prickers and I was actually using my walking stick as a kind of bushwhacker for a few hundred yards.

And the frogs were thriving. I'm not sure I've ever heard them so loud. When we lived in Ridgefield, CT, we had a pond on our property and in the summer months the frogs created a cacophony at night, but these frogs were louder, at least individually. I was wondering if it might be high mating season and if those weren't plaintive cries.

For many days I've been seeing little chameleon-like lizards scurrying across the path. But today I was stopped in my tracks. A lizard about 18" long walked in front of me, and he didn't seem to be in any rush.

After weeks of vineyards and endless wheat, I finally saw some corn today. Much of it was early growth, a foot or two high, but some fields were as tall as three feet. In contrast, some of the weeds and wildflowers, particularly next to the irrigation ditches, were shoulder high or greater. The farm buildings, unlike in earlier days, were mostly modern and sleek, prefab steel and sheet metal structures that one sees throughout the American Midwest.

Now I'm in the small town of Hospital de Orbigo, after crossing one of the most beautiful stone footbridges of the Camino. Dating from the 13th century, elegantly proportioned and beautifully preserved, the bridge has 19 arches, three of them spanning the Rio Orbgio and the rest going over land. Once in town, after stopping at a friendly bar for water and directions, I came upon a bell tower (of the Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Purification) with three giant storks nests, those architectural wonders I've been seeing in many towns. I'm now at my hotel, which is on a two-lane truck route highway near some dusty warehouses, a little less than 1K from the center of town. I'll be walking into town to explore and for dinner in a little while.