Day 28- León to San Justa de la Vega

Depart Time: 7:45 Temp: 40F RH: 65%

Walked: 8.6 mi. Camino 2024: 165 mi.

The walk to the bus station only took 15 minutes, giving us plenty of time to get oriented by finding our “dársenas” (boarding dock), inspect the bus station restrooms and relax with a cafe con leche and croissant before boarding time.

We boarded the ALSA bus at 9:00 and 39 minutes later, disembarked, collected our packs and began today’s walk at Hospital de Orbigo. Our one-way tickets were 3.70€ each.

Blogger’s note: Since our first couple of Caminos, we have used the bus to get us clear of the city and industrial areas that extend nearly 7 miles from Leon center to Virgin de Camino. The next 10 miles pass through uninteresting villages with limited services with the Camino path on or very close to a very busy secondary highway. In our opinion, Hospital de Órbigo is the first town of any significance related to the history and culture of the Camino that occurs after León.

If walking your first Camino, then walking the area we are skipping today is part of the Camino experience and we suggest you do it all, at least the first time.

For us, it has added little to our experience and actually detracts from it, after walking it a couple of times.

Today we chose to walk along N-120 to San Justa de la Vega. The official route is through the hilly countryside with no services for about 6 miles. The alternative route we are taking today is about the same distance but offers a rest stop at the half-way point that we prefer.

Just after the bus dropped us off and beginning the walk along N-120.
Given the choice we chose the path for this mile long section
The path narrowed but is was still quite walkable.
We walked along an abandoned section of the old highway, which felt safer.
old road getting ready to run out
Crossing over the other side of N-120 to the old highway, now running parallel but on the left side for roughly 2 miles.
Here, we began walking on the left side of N-120
After a little over 4 miles, we stopped at a service station for OJ, rest rooms and a welcomed off-our-feet break.
continuing on after the service station break
The Crucero de Santo Toribio over looking Astorga.
Walking down along the cobbled path from the cross into San Justa de la Vega with Astorga a couple of miles in the background and the mountains.
A hydrating pilgrim statue as we walked into San Justa. Linda gets her water from her hydration pack… avoiding “potable water” fountains for drinking.
Our simple but comfortable room in Hostal Juli

Today was our first real test after struggling with the after effects of an intestinal bug Jim came down with on the 7th, then shared with Linda a couple of days later. While Jim’s system seemed to be stable after about a week, Linda was running a couple days behind Jim, seemingly due to her timing. She’s pretty much clear of the bug symptoms today.

After being able to manage today’s relatively long walk, we’re finally feeling like we are back to normal and can return to enjoying Camino 2024 even more.

Based on today’s performance, we also don’t believe we lost the conditioning we had built on Camino2024 prior to getting sick.

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