Leaving Leon was an entire day walking through an urban jungle.

It was hideous.

It was without a doubt the ugliest day on the Camino de Santiago.

The day started by passing Leon’s gorgeous Cathedral and lovely old city architecture but after I stepped out onto the outskirts of town things got ugly.

I followed the highway for miles, trying to distract myself with music and regular coffee breaks but I soon started too miss the beauty of paths passed.

I soldiered on knowing that eventually the day would have to get at least a little prettier… right?

Wrong.

I was in for a day of highway views and even my lunch stop had a perfect view of the open Spanish roads.

Regardless of the hideous scenery I managed to chat to some lovely people – including a local man giving fruit to pilgrims on the side of the road – and enjoy some small beautiful moments when there was a break in the traffic.

As the day went on my recently injured foot started to complain so I decided to make it a short day and stop after 26km in San Martin De Camino.

I walked into the first albergue I saw – which had many pilgrims lingering around a pool!

The albergue was extremely welcoming and I managed to score the last bed (which seemed to be happening quite regularly and I wondered how many ‘last beds’ each place had).

The staff were lovely and I discovered the local fruit sharer from earlier that day was actually one of the owners.

I was shown to a dorm where I dropped my bag and headed straight for the showers.

It was one of those strange situations where all the showers had a private room but for unknown reasons some were marked with stickers of boys and some with stickers of girls.

Of course all of the girly showers were occupied and one woman was already starting a line. There was another Spanish man in the bathroom using a sick.

I started talking about how ridiculous the sexist private showers were and said that I was going to use one of the many vacant ‘boys’ showers.

The man laughed and said I wasn’t allowed.

I hadn’t shaved my legs on the entire Camino de Santiago and it was day 17. I told him I was probably harrier than him anyway so I had earned the right to use the boy showers.

He didn’t believe me.

I made him feel my legs.

He couldn’t control his laughter and admitted that I was indeed hairy enough to use the boys showers.

After my manly shower I headed outside to do my laundry… Unfortunately the Spanish man had shared our bathroom encounter with all the other pilgrims relaxing outside and soon many Spanish men were asking to feel my legs. Never had I felt prouder to be so hairy but I did take a mental note to invest in a razor the next day…

I spent the afternoon relaxing with my fellow pilgrims. I ended up meeting a young group composing of an Australian girl, a Canadian boy and an Irish boy.

By the time dinner started we were great friends and in desperate need to repress the fact that I was now the notorious hairy pilgrim I decided to drink my troubles away.

The food was fantastic, the company was wonderful and it was a perfect way to recover from an ugly day on the Camino de Santiago.

I had travelled 500km on my feet. I hadn’t set foot in a vehicle, train or aircraft since I left France. Santiago was almost in sight.