A LITTLE BIT JABBERWOCKY

The weather had definitely changed.  There was a chill in the air as I left Vega early in the morning.  The air was hazy and the sky was pearly.  Rain was in the forecast.

Today's walk would take me to Oviedo.  I wasn't looking forward to the second half of it, which was through the satellite towns and villages of the city, but the first half looked OK on the map.  And it was.  I walked through meadows and little hamlets.  I passed another great lump of limestone called La Pena.  Apple trees were in blossom.

At one point, the trail crossed the highway and went into a wood.  A sign said to be careful because of the Peligroso Socabón.   What sort of thing was that? I wondered.  Lewis Carroll popped into my mind...

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub Bird, and shun
The Frumious Bandersnatch!"

I was conjuring in my mind what a Dangerous Socabon might look like as I entered the wood.  It was a good thing I was looking down because right in the middle of the path was a great puddle of steaming excrement!

I might have thought that it was a sloppy cow pat, had there not been a side order of toilet paper.

  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peregrino malo, why would you do that right on the path when there are woods on either side?  Perhaps it was for fear of the Peligroso Socabon?

 There was utter silence as I entered the wood.  It was evident that this part of the Camino had been heavily improved lately. There was fresh gravel on the pathway, with large rounded cobbles.  Little streams had been bridged and chairs and benches cut from the trees along the way.  Utter, eerie silence prevailed as I wandered along.  I had decided that the Socabon was sort of a cross between a giant salamander,or a mudpuppy with its fringed gills, and a Chinese dragon, and maybe a bit like Randall, the scary nightmare monster from the Disney movie. It was probably blue, I thought, with a bright red tooth filled mouth.  Suddenly, I was aware of a looming presence. I started and turned to find....

The friendly Czech, powering along in socks and sandals!  Whew!  What a relief....or it was a relief until I started thinking that maybe he thought that I had been the one to besmirch the trail.  Then I was just horrified!

So, what is a socabón, you ask?  As far as I can tell, in Castilian it would be socavón, and it has something to do with a hole or a cave or subsidence.....but what lives in there?  Only your unconscious knows for sure.