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Ledigos

A shorter day, but one which took its toll!
Out of Boadilla at 7am, in the pre-sunrise gloaming, pausing only for a picture of the impressive doorway of an abbey.
Today is to be 23km, but he first 17km have no villages or facilities.   There were a couple of food vans (not shown on the maps) but only in the first few km from Boadilla.   So there was then a long, long straight path to the first town.
..and that picture could have been taken at more or less any point on that 17km walk.   Miles of wheat fields, with the occasional sunflower field to break the monotony; but then the pattern of wheat and sunflowers itself becomes monotonous.  So time to think, time to pray, time to wonder.
Another pattern starts to assert itself.  Striding along gradually becomes walking, then tramping, then plodding.  Now stop and take a good big drink from the bottle (there being nowhere else to get one).
(Is that the same picture?  You decide!)
And back to striding along, then walking, then....
The village ahead, like many around here, hides.  The buildings merge into the background, the same colour as cropped wheat fields.  And it's in a dip, so the suspicion that the dark patches against the wheat is in fact part of a tower isn't actually confirmed until the top of a small hill, from which the place springs into view.   And it has a bar!  It's only 10:30, so coffee, sparkling water, and I was an easy sales target for a big chorizo sandwich.
And the last 6km, through a more wooded valley, a relief from the monotony - but still the same effect at the end of a village concealing itself until the last moment!

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