Day 33, Palas de Rei to Arzua

Trails through farms and forests and a cloudy cool day made 30km tick by without too much pain.
July 8
Had an extremely quiet night - didn't see a soul I knew.

Investigated the fabled octopus. It was very nice, but I know it's cooked in a variety of ways, which I've yet to try. Including tonight, I only have five left in Spain, so must be sure to let no dish remain untasted (although I draw the line at tripe).

Breakfast this morning wasn't until 7.30am (same tomorrow). I was there early, downed the requisite corn flakes and was out the door by 7.40am.


It was nice and cool and the countryside was pleasant. Had a coffee stop at about 9km and a lunch stop towards noon (where I had a big piece of a thin beef pie), but otherwise soldiered on for about 6hr 40min, clocking an average of 4.4km/h, which is very good going.

Once I'd finished communing with nature and the pace slowed - at about 20km - I put on a new audio book. The 100-Year-Old Man who Jumped out a Window, etc etc. That kept me entertained until I arrived in Arzua soon after 2pm.

My hotel room is fairly spartan. The accommodation is just an adjunct to the restaurant. For the first time, I wasn't asked for my my passport, although I was groping for it. The restaurant was busy - the man rushed out, asked my name, handed me a key and muttered some instructions and left me to it.

Here's the before and after. I had to put my suitcase on one side of the double bed and my laptop on the chair, seating myself on the bed with the essential writing supplies on the bedside table.



Not sure how tonight is going to work out. This is another town with the main street running through it, so it could be noisy.

While I was gazing out the window at the attractive bank of overflowing rubbish bins, I got some insights into how it works. Women armed with brooms ride the town housekeeping trucks, loading rubbish in and sweeping the pavement, where the inevitable overflow has landed.

As they drove away it all looked very tidy.

With today's long walk out of the way, it's a doddle from now on. Two 20km days - I'll manage them both between noon and 1pm, depending on breakfast times and how much time I spend drinking coffee along the way.

I feel quite relaxed about going home. I have no idea what happens next in my life, but I have a happy feeling that it doesn't matter. I'll embrace the things that feel good, and do the opposite with the things that don't. Looking forward to a cup of nice tea in bed and a book that is made of paper.

Here's today's photos (starts with a couple from last night): https://photos.app.goo.gl/HwWBg29r6rAnZe47A

Here's the day's statistics from the watch:

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 9, 2019 at 2:32 AM

    And it will be damn good to see you home again, old fruit

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter's CaminoJuly 9, 2019 at 5:11 AM

    How kind - how strange it will be :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 26, Moilnaseca to Villafranca del Bierzo

Image
The historic castle at Ponferrada. June 30 Yesterday may have been the hardest, but today was the longest - and the hottest. When I passed through a small town at noon, the pharmacy clock was saying 33 degrees and it got much hotter than that before I arrived at my destination four hours later. But to backtrack a bit. I woke up very grumpy because of the stratospheric noise I'd endured from soon after 9pm to nearly 1am. It was Saturday night in Molinaseca and directly below my window was a live rock band playing at unbelievable volume. It was a fairly classy hotel and I was very disappointed that they wouldn't have thought to at least mention it. I couldn't find and air conditioning in the room. It was very hot when I went to bed and I'd opened the window, but that wasn't possible once the music started. Added to that disappointment, they didn't start breakfast until 7.30am, when I had a very long day ahead and just wanted to get away early. I was d...
Read more

Day 18, Calzadilla to Sahagun

Image
Yellow arrows are a vital aid to navigation on the Camino de Santiago. This one is a bit more flash than usual. June 21 It’s a special day – I’ve now passed the halfway point and arrived in the town of Sahagun. By my reckoning, I’ve walked 419km since I left St Jean Pied de Port on June 2. I’m not doing as well as I thought I should be by this point. I’m still having a lot of trouble with a pressure blister below my right ankle and just above the sole of my foot. Despite repeated lancings, I can’t seem to get at the heart of it – the skin is very tough down there, so it’s not easy to poke a needle through. To ease the pain there, I walk a bit flat footed and that puts stress on the rest of my foot, so the joint of my big toe is giving me some gyp too. I’ve also got a heat rash on my back from always having a sweaty back under my pack. I’d been putting antiseptic tea tree oil on it, but read online that you should avoid oil as it clogs the pores. Ignoring all that...
Read more

Zero hour

Image
June 1 It's been nearly a year since I made this plan. Finally, I've arrived in St Jean Pied de Port (St Jean at the foot of the mountain). I started the day in Frankfurt. I had the alarm set for 5am, but woke an hour earlier. I knew I wouldn't go back to sleep, so had a shower, packed up and went downstairs. As a small compensation for the lack of internet access, its absence meant that the night clerk couldn't calculate what I owed in incidentals (Beer, tourist tax, breakfast), so he shrugged his shoulders. I wasn't prepared to negotiate the dubious timetables of trams and trains in the early morning on a Saturday, so I got a taxi. I love the German autobahns. Whizzing along at 140km/h, with cars passing us, I was pleased that the meter didn't have time to tick over too much and the 45 euro bill was counterbalanced by the 25 or so I'd saved at the hotel. At the airport I managed to negotiate everything except the fact that I'd put a new tube...
Read more