My alarm went off at 4:15am then again @4:30am I did not want to get out of bed, I was so comfortable. I finally decided to get up @4:45 and was out door by 5:30am! As I walked through the empty city of León I began to see other pilgrims appear out from their hostels and get back on the road again. I bumped into a Hungarian couple that I had not met before( they had spent two nights in León as they had blisters and wanted to give them time to recover) We chatted for a a bit but I was keen to walk on so 'Buen Camino' was uttered as I walked off into the dark. Before I knew it i was sat having a coffee at the first town La Virgen Del Camino I couldn't believe it as it was only 6:45am, that meant I had walked 8.5km I'm an hour and fifteen minutes!( I seemed to be getting faster)

I didn't delay but I did bumped into the Hungarian couple again, they were just sitting down for a coffee just as I was throwing the backpack back on. Off I went again I seemed to be flying along today and was really enjoying myself, didn't seem to be pass many people either so I was I singing away, being mindful tho that a pilgrim on a bike could catch up on me at any point, so was keeping my Mariah impressions to a minimum lol

Some where between La Virgen del Camino and Valverde my biggest fear happened as I knew it was going to at some point(talk about a classic of what you think about you bring about). I don't know how or why i looked up at the exact moment but about 100 meters away in front of me to my left, he stood frozen and camouflaged in the long corn. I stopped suddenly and took one step back, I still wasn't sure if I was seeing things but it quickly became apparent that it was a huge wild dog dark grey in colour just hiding in the corn. A thousand thoughts shot going through my head, what was i going do? I looked back and could see to figures far off in the distance, but i mean if the dog was going to attack me they wouldn't have been able to help me as they were to far away. So I just took a deep breath(shitting myself!) and just started to walk on slowly. I had my walking poles so thought if he makes a run for me I'll just have to try fight him off as best I could. As I got closer our eyes were still locked on each other I decided to make that sound we all make when calling a dog(so scared,not knowing what was going to happen) when suddenly he jumped and ran off into the field, I had never been so relived in all my life but for the next 4 or 5km at least I kept looking behind me for fear he had changed his mind and decided to come after me!

When I reached Villadangos del Páramo(which was where I was meant to be stopping it was only 10:30am and there didn't seem to be much in the town, so I sat and had a coffee and decided that I would walk on further. It was still cool enough and I had plenty of food and water so I was sorted. I just took my time strolling along but every now and then I'd look behind for the dog, maybe it was just a reminder for me not to become to relaxed as you never know when danger is around the corner.

In my head I had now decided that I would stop in Santibanez de Valdeiglesia which was two towns away from where I was just about to enter. It was getting hot tho and i kinda thought to myself will I just stop where I am now(Hospital de Orbigo) I had even gone and found where the hostel was but suddenly I found myself walking on as I knew I would, something was just pushing me on to where I said i was going to stop. It was only another 5.6km and after what I had already done it seemed like a walk in the park. I arrived and it was only a small little town but the hostel is nice, I bumped into a guy i had met on the second day walking so we had a brief chat and then I got chatting to an American girl who was traveling Europe for the summer. I needed food tho so I went down and had lunch and they both joined me after a while, it was all very pleasant and the conversation just seemed to flow. I didn't last to long though as I need to go have my siesta, don't know how I'm going to break this habit once back to work, imagine 'sorry guys closed for 2hours due to siesta' ????

The American girl had asked me to wake her before i went to dinner incase she fell asleep, so I did. I couldn't deal with pasta or chicken again tonight so just opted for a baguette with cheese and chorizo, hit the spot just right ????????

In total today I walked 38.2km
*510.2km down *279.8km till Santiago