We are now most of the way across the Meseta, a high plain running from Burgos to Leon (where we are currently) and a bit beyond.  As you prepare for the Camino, you read about it – bleak, arid, bare, long stretches with no stops for food or water, and no shade from the hot sun.  One old Camino hand quoted us a remark that the first third of the Camino is for your body – you get better at the walking, I guess – and the last third is for your soul – might come to that when we get there (or not).  The middle third -the meseta – is for your mind, implying a tough mental test.

In practice, as with some other things in life, like the tax return, thinking about it is worse than getting stuck in.  We have been lucky in that the weather has been dry throughout, and not baking hot most days.  And it hasn’t been my favourite stretch so far.  But we haven’t found it as much of an ordeal as some made out, and nor have the many people we have talked to in the evenings and on the trail.

The first thing to say is that the territory does vary.  At times it is very bare: you can look in all directions and literally not see anything engineered by man or woman: no fences or walls, no farm buildings, no rusty old agricultural machinery (thankfully), just big fields and the very occasional tree.  But stretches quite this bare are the exception.  There is a certain amount of up and down.  The landscape varies, eg around Itero de la Vega, just after you enter into Palencia province, there was quite a lot of activity, with more traffic, corn still not harvested, woods, and vines planted.  That then dwindled to just fields with hardly any trees on the way in to Boadlilla.   At this time of year, many of the fields have been harvested, so look pretty bare, whether re-ploughed (see previous blog) or not.  In other areas, the farmers are busy getting the crops in, and we saw someone hoover up a field of sunflowers very quickly one afternoon – think we will still buy the seeds at the supermarket when we get home …

Changes are on the way.  Saplings have been planted in protective shells in places, presumably for commercial purposes, though in the last couple of days, there have been some offering shade to the walkers.  You see quite a lot of wind farms in the distance, though surprisingly few solar panels.  And there are some interesting cloud scapes: at one point, just over a crest, the hazy sky reminded me of  a seascape with islands, off the coast of Scotland or Ireland.  Wish I could paint a better picture in words, never mind use a brush.

The other thing is that I’m pretty sure that there are more villages with facilities than there were a few years ago, as part of the development of the Camino all round.  When we drove here in 1988, I remember concluding that I would not be able to walk the Camino, because I couldn’t carry the water I would need to cover the long and hot empty stretches.  But the gaps are manageable now.

Finally, I can’t resist a pun.  One human-made feature in the latter stages is a new rail line, presumably high-speed.  Until then, we hadn’t seen any trains on the Camino.  So with apologies to “My Fair Lady”, the train in Spain runs mainly in the plain …