Camino Day 24: Bercianos de Real Camino to Mansilla de las Mulas to Leon

Date: April 24th, 2022

Distance: 26.3km/16.3 miles walking, 20km cab to Leon

Time: 8 hours (8:30am to 4:30pm)

Today was glorious, joyful, bliss. It wasn’t raining! It wasn’t windy! Chilly, but not cold. Blue skies and sunshine. Just glorious, glorious, glorious.

At our first breakfast stop, we sat outside and shared bowls of ramen, which was highly recommended by the Korean couple we keep running into, and not something you see on the Camino everyday! Sticking with today’s theme of joy, I jumped on the random trampoline that happened to be in the yard, and Frances joined me for some seat drops. Bouncing felt great on the sore feet.

Next stop was picnic time. Nuno had an empanada, olives, cheese, tomatoes and other snackies. Frances had made sandwiches for all of us, and she even had aioli packets in her backpack.. a woman after my own heart! Nickie busted out a bar of chocolate. Funny how all these random little things made up the perfect pilgrim picnic. I spent some quality time laying in the grass and watching the clouds pass. Savoring this weather and this moment.

The 3rd stop was for sangria, patatas bravas, croquetas, chocolate crepes, petting cats. Frances and I raced to the trail afterwards, panting and laughing, and then we talked the rest of the 6km to Mansanilla de las Mulas.

After a full 26km day, I called a cab, said goodbye to my lovely squad (who I would be meeting tomorrow at our Leon Airbnb), and made the 20 minute drive to Leon to reunite with my Camino bestie before she continued on.

It was sooo good to see her face! We talked about how weird it is that we’ve only known each other for a couple weeks- it felt like getting together with an old friend. The Camino really fast tracks relationships. We caught up on Camino stories, drank cava, and ate pad thai. She even let me crash in her nice room. See ya in Santiago, baby!

Blue skies, grass, picnics, friends, reunions. Maybe you have to go through those painful rainy days to reallyyyy enjoy and revel in days like today. Maybe not. Either way, today was pretty fucking great.