Mad Dogs And Englishmen

CAMINO FRANCÉS – Day 17: Friday 25 April 2025 – CARRIÓN de los CONDES to SAHAGÚN (40 [+3] kilometres)

I have done a lot of crazy things in my time I guess, but this marathon in the Spanish sun must rank up there with the maddest of all. I was up pre-dawn, and walking hard for nine hours, basically covering, in one go, a day and a half of my schedule. My self-justification for this madness is (1) as a challenge to myself after several ‘short days’, arriving at my destination around late lunchtime, and (2) to get a day ahead of myself, so as to have a rest day in León, in a couple of days’ time, with the opportunity of looking around a new city. I am on track for all of this, but feeling the effects after a gruelling route march (that is not really in the spirit of the Camino Francés experience), in temperatures that reached 29 degrees centigrade on my arrival into Sahagún this late afternoon.

My trek today, long and hot, is best covered by a few photos.

Just as a reminder, the distances in my heading are in kilometres: all the measurements out here are in metric, as they are in my guidebook and on my maps (online and paper). The principal kilometres figure in my title piece above (in bold) is the distance that I have covered today on the official Camino Francés path itself: the number in brackets is the additional distance that I have walked when taking diversions onto alternative recommended routes (avoiding roads, taking in sights, etc), on deviating from the path (to explore, to take photos, or to find my accommodation, etc), and also for my evening strolls around the cities, towns and villages in which I am staying.

Taking all of these numbers into account, by my reckoning I reached the halfway point of the Camino Francés around Carrión de los Condes, where I stayed last night. However, nothing is clear in the world of trekking, and the powers that be deem variously the midpoint to be in the village of Ledigos (through which I passed at around noon today), Terradillos (a couple of kilometres further on), and Sahagún (where I am resting up tonight). I have held back the celebrations until reaching the latter (better to be safe than sorry), and was seemingly justified in this approach, as I found that the town offers a ‘halfway’ evening mass to pilgrims in the Church of San Tirso. I duly attended, as one of about twenty pilgrims, together with a similar number of locals, and was given a blessing and a verse of a psalm, plus the collective prayers of the clergy present, for safe passage over the remainder of my journey. I have never had such care proffered on me during any of my earlier treks, nor such an outstanding evening meal of three fine courses, ample wine, coffee, and a one litre bottle of mineral water to take away, all provided for the set rate of €15. I feel rather tired, but very spoilt, as I sit here writing this piece in my room this evening.

‘Mad Dogs And Englishmen (go out in the midday sun)’ is a cabaret song written and first performed by Noël Coward in 1931. I have chosen this title for my Blog today for obvious reasons, but as I cannot contemplate having the piece on my Camino playlist, I am dedicating the heading instead to the 1970 album ‘Mad Dogs And Englishmen’, a collection of live cover versions by Joe Cocker. In actual fact the song that I am going to adopt on my playlist from Cocker’s album is ‘Feelin’ Alright’, a number written by Dave Mason, formerly of the 1960s band ‘Traffic’.