Wow - It's day six!!!! Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. At this albergue, there is a small kitchen with a fridge and freezer, so I have my sweat cloth in there right now, so I can improvise an ice pack. An while my feet are good, I have one small blister on that dreaded little toe and I see the skin has opened, so I'll be doctoring that up a bit more tomorrow morning.
I cannot tell you how exciting it is to not spend my afternoons looking for pharmacies and trying to make the best of health issues. Being able to walk around with little pain is amazing!!!
I knew right off that I would encounter the rest of the climb that I didn't get to do the day before. It did NOT disappoint. The climb seemed to go on forever and we went through muh farm country. The views from the mountains are spectacular.
Now here's a new hazard to watch for - cow patties!!! Yep - unlike North America, the villages are where the farmers stay including the barns and their cows. So as the cows are moved from the barn to the pasture, well, as you can expect, there are cow patties.
I met a farmer this morning moving his small herd of cows and I was right in the path. I just moved to the side and hoped they would not step on my feet. That would not be good.
Oh - I swear I did NOT sleep last night. I donˋt know what the issue was. I had a coke with dinner at 5 PM. Could it have been that? You would think it would wear off after a bit. Was I snoring and waking myself up? Anyway, I thought I would be tired today - well more tired than I am, but Iˋm fine.
OH-- that cold cloh is cold!!!!!
Once I hit the next biggest town and was just getting ready to leave after having my chocolate croissant for breakfast, I noticed a big group of people. Yep --- we are almost at Sarria and so the fun begins. Many people start their Camino here and so the numbers increase significantly. Many of these people pay to have everything taken care of for them and they carry a small day bag. There are options for everyone, but it's going to get crowded and noisy and I'm not looking forward to it.
The name of the town is O'Cebreiro.
Even after that first climb (1 1/2 hours), there was a lot more climbing in the day. Much more than I anticipated, but we are going through the mountains, so I guess you have to expect that!
The paths were super shady again today and the temperature was reasonable, so no major sweat incidents like yesterday. That was insane. Then we got to one point where you could see some umbrellas at the top of a hill. A BIG STEEP hill and YES - we had to go up. Oh my. My heart was doing a little dance at the top of that one.
And then somewhere along the line, we had to start the descent. It was long and some parts were steep. At least the terrain (the path) was descent, no major obstacles other than the distance and the pitch to deal with.
At one point, I really wanted to be a the end of the descent. My knees were not too happy. However, they seem to be fine now. OK. that's a lie as I have taken anti inflammatory and today, I popped a pain pill as well. A little bit of stretching and later on things will be fine.
We have more climbing in the next couple of days, but the height is shorter and therefor the descents should also be shorter. I can lie with the walking part!!!!
I took the first albergue I found. I know -- don't take the first one, but it's ultra modern and quite nice. There are only four of us here - room for 16. Let's hope I get a better sleep.
what drives me crazy is the people in those big rooms. Last night some guy arrived at the alberque at 8:30 and yes there was a room for him. He took the top bunk over me . Butt did he organize his stuff? Oh yes -- at 10:30 when the lights were out and people were trying to sleep. I think that partly irked me and didn't help me get to sleep. I know I need to get over that kind of stuff, but I struggle.
He was not the only one that got in late. I have no idea where everyone was, but I think there were 6 (men - sorry men!) that came in late. Annoying and then why do people set an alarm in a dorm setting? Oh well, I was glad to get up and get those climbs done.
I have a big book that I'm trying to read. An ebook -- Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraithe. Good grief -- it's 1655 pages long and I have 6 days left. I'm not quite half done. I need a rest day to read the book!
The one sentence of today -- There will always be ups and downs in life. Make sure you know how to handle both of them because you can't have one without the other!!!
OH-- I should mention that there are MANY clouds in the sky which is something we haven't seen. I'm guessing this is the altitude of the mountains and closing in on the border with the ocean????
Have a super day!!!!
Ciao!!!!
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