I’m beginning this evening with a book recommendation; Hartmut Rosa’s “The Uncontrollability of the World”. It is a work of social theory, so not a light read, but Rosa looks at the way the modern world, the world we all inescapably inhabit, is driven by forces which express “modernity’s incessant desire to make the world engineerable, predictable, available, accessible, disposable (i.e. verfügbar) in all its aspects.” Rosa explains why this cannot be, in a book that, to my mind, is both compelling and gripping.

Walking the Camino, because it shrinks your world and slows it down, sometimes brings home quite sharply the way uncontrollability impacts on us as individuals, tiny units in a universe of incredible size and complexity. I was doing nicely, yesterday. My legs and feet were in good shape. The only slight cloud on the horizon was an unpleasant sore throat. Luckily I had a few Strepsils packed!

I had started to increase my distances without discomfort, and made it to Tosantos by 15.00. I settled in and wrote my blog. But by 18.00 I was starting to feel very unwell. My heart was racing, my voice disappeared, a horrible cough began and I was very nauseous. I consulted Diana, an Episcopalian nurse who was staying at the hostel. As I had no fever she said it was just a nasty cold ‘but you are very infectious now, so you should isolate’.

I told the Franciscan hospitaleros of my problem, and they were both thankful, and kindness itself. They had an empty room in the top of the house, and after I had eaten a solitary supper in the kitchen I went up to bed. Franciscans sleep on pallets on the floor, so it wasn’t very comfortable, but they did all they could, like making me cups of sweet tea.

I realized by about 19.00 that any walking tomorrow was unlikely, but I put off making decisions until I saw how I was. My hacking cough made steady sleep difficult, and this morning I still felt rough. My response to this unpredictability was to catch a bus to Burgos. I checked out of the accommodation I had booked in an eight person dorm (I’m pretty sure I caught this in a dorm in Barcelona or Navarrete), and into a hotel with single rooms. Two days of recovery tacked onto the front of a planned rest day on Saturday, should see me ready for the trek across the Meseta, the high tableland of central and northern Spain.

Much of the day I have slept, but I went on a bus ride mid-afternoon, and pottered and did some shopping and got a meal this evening. Burgos is a very beautiful city. I have scattered a few pictures here, but further descriptions will follow over the days. I am hoping for a better night’s sleep, and I shall let myself sleep in if I can. Good night, all!