La Bañeza to Astorga - leaving the Via de la Plata and joining the Camino Frances (French Camino)

You don't often see a sign like this in a market square in England

Ready wrapped cherries

Corn

Tadpoles in puddles

Camino way sign

Red Camino

Blackbird Egg

Sausage Factory in Celada

Snow-capped mountain - El Teleno

Puffball mushrooms stud the Camino pathways through meadows

 Provencal Fritillary

 Painted Lady

Special welcome laid on for Kevin's arrival in Astorga

Sometimes your backpack really does feel this big....

 Tapas

Quo Vadis - El Caminente

Álija del Infantado to La Bañeza

Fancy brickwork on the water tower in Quintano del Marco

Huge sports hall for 300 inhabitants

We followed the Río Jamús with it's yellow iris and skirted around fields of wheat, barley, oats and Jerusalem Artichokes.

We counted at least 10 stork nests on this castle tower

We're almost getting to the point where we say 'What, no castle?' when we enter a village now - this is Villanueva de Jamús.

Mediterranean Marigolds

You can see these disused grain silos for miles

La Bañeza - famous for it's Motorcross Circuit

Tower on the circuit

Spanish Motorcross hero

 We have been shadowed by real goldfinches daily on the Camino

Santiago Pilgrim

No explanation needed...

Benavente to Álija del Infantado

Found our first cross with a statue of St James (Santiago) today in Villabrázaro

This is how a village protests when they don't think they're getting enough help from the local government....

Puente de Vizana over Río Órbigo in the Province of León

Danger on the Camino - Villous Deadly Carrot and Poisonous Hemlock ☠️

Even a little place like Álija del Infantado has it's own castle

As we were passing, a man unlocked the castle for us to have a look and said 'Close the door when you leave' so we had the place to ourselves...

Looking back at the Camino we've just walked

Troglodite Castle, now a Bodega as it has the perfect wine storage temperature.

Check out the roof (which has had some remedial work done to it) to see how large this is...

Evidently there is a whole underground village with a plaza here 

Our pitch tonight also doubles as the village supermarket

Water fountain commemorating 500 years since Town Charter