Feeling a bit tired 🥱 Just had a cerveza and tortilla and back to our accommodation for blogging and a rest. Paulo is having cerveza X and then he will wash clothes at laundromat. Then Paulo will blah blah with half of Brazil 🇧🇷 for an hour or more.
Given I did all the initial walk planning (stages, accommodation etc)…Paulo does practical Spanish stuff…clothes washing, language interpretation etc. Overall works well…my Spanish speaking skills are once more essentially useless 😂.
Today was again a very good day…long at 31.7 kms over 6.5 walking hours for an average of 4.9 kms per hour…our highest so far. Elevation gains 531 meters; elevation losses 819 meters totalling 1,352 meters…on the low side.
Weather perfect…a little cooler, cloud cover, walking very well, injury report remains good, scenery not as spectacular as we have left the mountains behind. 🥲
Back to last evening a very enjoyable supper with John and Carmel (must find out if this spelling is correct) from Ireland and Mike from the United States. No photo of the group as we forgot! Conversation was free flowing…found out Mike is walking the Camino as a gift to himself - turns 40 this year. Sigh 😔 to be so young!
Chocolate tort, beef and fries (of course!), potato salad and tomatoes. Pictures in reverse order of receipt of food!
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| Potato salad and tomato However prior to the meal we had a major scare as we narrowly averted a puzzling (potentially disastrous) situation. |
I could not open our room with our key…no way no how…so here comes Paulo to the rescue fully expecting to solve this problem easily…cheeky young fellow! No way for him either.
At this point I had visions of sleeping in the hallway all night waiting for the local locksmith to come. Geez 🙄 my Tilley hat and Clooney’s were in the room!
Paulo gets the receptionist to come over and she had a heck of a time but managed to somehow open it giving us a “geez are you guys dumb or what look”
We had no idea what she did and could not repeat it sooo…Paulo suggested we take Passport, Wallet, Phone (the big three) and leave the room unlocked as we went out for supper. We also left the room unlocked during the night for fear we could not get out! Phew 😮💨
Trying to match Paulo I had a short but delightful WhatsApp video call with Dawn and Granddaughters Rose 7 and Elodie 4.
Elodie wanted to know why I wasn’t yet home and had much to say about her day. Rose wanted to know if Spain had winters and whether I had a refrigerator to keep my food in 🙂
We got off to a very early start this morning after a quick breakfast 🤣 ..you eat what you can get!
It was a little chilly and pitch black once outside the city until about 8:00.
Had a vivid reminder that being careful…especially in the dark while looking at Wikiloc GPS tracks is critical! I suddenly found myself one foot on the path and the other in the ditch 😞
Thankfully I was able to recover in time however that is how a Camino (or any walk) can suddenly come to an end by twisting an ankle. If this had happened day 1 the end result might have been different however after all this walking on uneven surfaces the ankle responded quickly and well. 😮💨
This Camino has been sooo quiet with respect to dangerous animals however I had a potentially close call today!
Notice the fluffy white dog (you may have to zoom in as I dared not come closer!) Most would think ah so cute however this a Spanish guard dog and I kept my distance!
Some may wonder what it’s like to walk with someone day in day out. The reality is Paulo and I, while walking within shouting distance of each other, likely walk 80-90% of the day apart…where possible talking to others on the route. This is quite common along the Camino…it works well. Nearly always near the end of the day…say last 4-5 kms when the “when in the h*ll will this be over” feeling takes over we tend to walk together and chat to help finish as strongly as possible.
Not too many other pilgrim walkers met today…
Iale (?) - Sweden
Two women (no names…we gave ours) - France
Today was a real mixture of quiet low traffic road walking (pleasant), forest walking (a very close second favourite to mountain walking) and some high traffic road walking (dreadful…simply go as fast as I can always facing traffic). Some photos from the day.
Pleasant road walking
Forest trail walking
One noticeable difference on the Camino Primitivo to the Camino Frances is the significant lack of services between long stretches…today 21 kms…no bar, cafe etc. While this is an extreme example it is still quite noticeable…so we were very glad to come upon this donativo (give what you want fruit stand!)
Tomorrow onto Ferreira 27 kms away…unbelievably 4 days left for the Camino Primitivo…210 kms+ done and 100 kms to go!
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| 350 year old tree! |
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