You’ll leave Bárcena de Campos behind quickly. A few houses, one last barking dog, and then the meseta opens up in front of you. There’s no woodland to give you shade, and no bends hiding what’s ahead. The path is almost completely flat, and the climbing hardly counts.
The rhythm comes naturally. Let your mind empty out, or fill up with everything you’ve left behind. This is the last day of the Besaya, and you can feel it. In Carrión de los Condes you join the Camino Francés. It gets busier straight away, with rucksacks, walking poles and conversations in all kinds of languages. If you carry on from here to Santiago, you’re starting a new chapter. When you look back, you’ll see fields stretching to the horizon beneath an enormous sky.