Faithful readers of this blog may remember the post from Sept. 20 titled 100 Miles. In it, we talked about having lunch at the ruins of the St. Anthony monastery.

The Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony ran the monastery/hospital there and ministered to sick pilgrims.

Lori’s been thinking about the Brothers and all those beleaguered pilgrims of the Middle Ages, especially the people who suffered with ‘St. Anthony’s fire’, a catch-all term that was used for several skin afflictions.

Why, you may ask? Because she suddenly is sporting about 50 bug bites! Jane has some, too, but Lori was apparently the subject of a bug feeding frenzy the day before yesterday. It probably happened when we were sitting outside the rural aubergue where we were staying.

Today, on the trail, we were so beset by bugs (likely from all the fields having been recently disced with manure) that we pulled out the handy-dandy bug net head coverings we’ve had ever since traveling to Australia in 2010. They saved our sanity.

Tonight, we’re staying in a lovely, bigger town called Astorga. It’s here because it’s been a crossroads since Roman times. Today, largely because of the Camino, people from all over the world still pass through Astorga every day. Along with a few bugs….