Hans & I decided that sleeping on a couple of tables pushed together would be more comfortable than the floor so we laid out all of the clothes we had on the tables to make them as soft as possible (impossible) but actually managed to sleep about 6 hours even though it hurt every bone and muscle in my body.

We woke at 5am very stiff and walked in the dark until the sun came up at about 7:45am. We were fortunate to meet the baker’s van as we were leaving Lorca and he sold us fresh, warm chocolate croissants and a French stick that we would eat for lunch.

The path was a combination of small hills and long flat tracks, with lots of pretty wildflowers and green fields. I had been looking forward to today since the start of the camino as today was the day we would reach the wine fountain! We arrived at the fountain at about 9am, but the fountain was dry… the early pilgrim gets the wine!

We arrived at our destination Los Arcos just after 2pm after walking 29.5 km and the first 2 albergues were full. It was heartbreaking; we had been walking since 6am and were totally exhausted. An angel must have been looking down on us as the next albergue in town said we were the last two pilgrims they would let in. At the entrance to the albergue there was a sign advertising massages so I booked us both in whilst Hans went and bought supplies for dinner from the supermarket. The massage was perfect, my feet were swollen and tingling and the masseuse told me I needed to drink more water and buy a pair of lighter, more breathable socks. It’s very hard to drink more when you don’t know where the next toilet is and there are so many people on the trail that it’s hard to just go anywhere! We cooked dinner with the ingredients Hans bought and had a lovely, relaxed afternoon after our massages.