Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Oct 5/11 Palas De Rei - Arzua 28.6 km

Hola!
Well folks I treked on today solo.  Dad woke up from a very restless sleep and was troubled with some pain from all the weight he was carrying in his backpack.  We agreed that it was best for him to catch the bus and meet me half way at Melide 15.2km from Palas De Rei.  It was best to start out in the morning because it´s seriously that much cooler.  Come 2pm it seems to be the hottest and is consistent up until around 5pm.  Honestly it has been very very very hot here.
When I left this morning it was completely hazy and cool.  I thought it might actually rain, but once I reached the top of the mountain (one of many) it started to clear up.  I left this morning around 9:30 am.  I walked somewhat behind a group of 4 people as they seemed to be keeping a good pace very similar to mine.  I ended up passing them as they needed to relieve themselves as most people do and find a place to do there business.  I´ve been pretty lucky in that when I´ve reached a destination where dad and I have stopped to have a break and a drink I just use the facilities there.  However yesterday both dad and I couldn´t wait so we did what we had to do. lol. I know you all needed to know that, but lets simply get down to the nitty gritty shall we. ha ha.
I met up with Dad in Melide.  We communicated with the walky talkies he had thoughtfully brought with him. I reached Melide at 12:41pm.  Not to shabby, but quite honestly I was booking it.  I was able to take in the scenery and get some pictures a well as stop to have a drink and get our passports stamped.  I met two irishman and a newzealander.  The three were travelling together.  The two irishman were father and son, John and Owen and I didn´t catch the other gentlemans name unforutnately.  Very nice guys and hey, you can´t go wrong with an Irish accent.  Love it!  I was going to ask them if they were "after me lucky charms" but thought I´d hold off until I got to know them better.  I chatted to them briefly, but headed off before them.  I know they made it to Melide as I saw them and introduced them to my dad, but didn´t think they were going to be travelling further to Arzua where I was going.  They looked pretty fatigued and it was already getting very hot.
Ok, so the running joke right now for me is these Norweigens.  Dad and I continue to run into them and did I mention they are rediculously fast walkers? Seriously, it is rediculous!  I started my trek from Melide to Arzua and noticed that the large group of them were ahead of me.  As I mentioned previously that whenever they see me and Dad they yell out "Hey Canada!"  So I casually, going at there road runner pace, snuck up on them and once I was behind them yelled out " OH NO! It´s the Norweigens!!"  They laughed and said hello and I walked with one of the girls, Cecilia, who had chatted with us the last couple of times we´d met up with them at our destinations.  She is a teacher in a small village of 1300 and has been teaching for 15 years.  She has been doing the Camino with her Dad. It was her first time and her Dad had been bugging her to do it with him so she took the opportunity to do so this year.  Her school was having it´s fall break so she was able to do it now.
I eventually went ahead as they had stopped for a break and some water.  So now I can say I beat the Norweigens YA!!!
During the rest of the walk I thought of Dad, because I hit some bloody steep climbs that would have absolutely killed him.  They killed me!  No joke 90 degrees.  I could chew on my shoelace, and the worst thing was when you thought you were at the top, HELL NO!  You´d go around a slight corner and BANG 90 degrees straight up AGAIN!  I actually said aloud, "Are you fucken kidding me right now?"   I was very glad that Dad didn´t have to endure that.
Well I made it to Arzua.  I had pulled out my walky talky and tried to contact Dad about 1km outside of town, but had no luck getting a hold of him. I figured he hadn´t turned it on yet.  The plan was for him to get us a Pension to stay in as the last two destinations we got to and the couple of Pensions we went to get a room at were all full.  It is honestly very busy this year with people. It´s not an anniversary year as that was last year, and Dad says it is very unusual that it is this busy with people.  There are school groups on the trail as well.  A lot of the locals start at Sarria to Santiago to get there Compastela.  As mentioned earlier you have to complete 100 miles to receive it.  So the trails are very much busier with groups and such, that I had noticed today.  If I was ever alone on the trail it wasn´t for long.
I wandered through Arzua thinking that if Dad got us a Pension to stay in it would be through the town and close to the trail leading outward.  You tend to still put on a number of kilometers going through these towns before actually getting out of them and back onto the trail.  I continued to try to get a hold of him on the walky talkies but with no luck.  Luckily I saw Deidre another Irish woman I met just a couple of days previous who I stopped to say hello to.  I sat with her for about 1/2 hour with an icetea and water and caught up with her. I explained the situation of wondering where my dad was etc.  I wasn´t too worried yet.
Anyway long story short, he had found a room for us at a Pension right when you enter the city.  So I had to walk back through the city to where I came from to meet him.  The funny part about where he was when I met him was"he had made zome friendz widz za Germanz." lol...I thought for sure the German friends we had met along the way had got him drunk. Instead he´d had a Coke. lol All was good.  I got cleaned up, and we both just finished dinner.
I´m not sure what our plan is for tomorrow. I´m thinking that I may not have the same enthusiasm as I did today to potentially do the 38.4 km needed to do tomorrow to reach Santiago.  There is no rush and what Dad and I might do is break it up into three stops.  He feels he can do a max of 15 km in a day and that is fine by me.  By the end of the day today my feet were definitely sore, but luckily the terrain was very forgiving. You don´t realize that when you walk these distances in a day that you very much welcome a sandy footing rather than the beautiful cobblestone that is absolutely everywhere.
We´ve been really lucky with our feet thus far. I have got a blister on my baby toe on my left foot, but it hasn´t slowed me down.  We saw a woman last night who was using her walking poles as crutches. She could not move. I´ve also seen many people who have there feet completely taped up.  It´s really something else.
Oh and before I forget, I walked through the most amasing Eucalyptis farm today.  You can´t miss them.  I picked a couple of leaves for Dad as he loves them. I would have cut off a branch, but it was harder than I thought to get a hold of them and I wasn´t sure I should have been doing that either way.
That is about it for now.  I´m off to bed and tending to my throbbing feet.
Love and miss you all, Beun Camino Amigos! xxoo

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