November novelties.

[Bierzo Baggie]

No internet connection for a while. Kept track of the running though.

Thursday 17th November.
Swift early morning run around the railway. Misty, “Hound of the Baskervilles” sort of landscape. Fresh flowers on the level crossing as usual.
25 minutes.

Saturday 19th November.
Hit the Pajariel trail to Toral de Merayo. Below, a vast expanse of almost leafless poplar trees all along the river. Bleak, autumn landscape but cool and perfect for running. Muck spreaders in the village doing their dirty business.
44 minutes.

Sunday 20th November.
Saw the solitary heron again as I stumbled across the river Sil via rocks and strategically placed bits of wood. (To call it a bridge would be generous). It soared upwards, sleek and elegant. Very unlike me at the moment.
Ran up to the village of Otero and beyond. Just outside the village, as I chugged up a beast of a hill, sweat pouring from my forehead and lungs exploding, I crossed with a Jehovah’s witness. He offered me a copy of “The Watchtower”. I said “no thanks!..bye”. Any elaboration on this would probably have finished me off and I staggered on ever upwards leaving behind me the Jehovah’s witness and perhaps a trail of biblical metaphors. Ran on to San Lorenzo to take the road back to Ponferrada. Early on a Sunday morning not even the mad ankle-nipping dogs of San Lorenzo are out yet….only Jehovah’s witnesses.
51 minutes.