What a tough day. Surprisingly, the first 20km was pretty easy and straight forward, mostly along side of a road but protected by a concrete barrier.  A couple of times, we had to cross that busy road to head into a village towards some cafes, bars, markets or other services.  We spoke with the people working in those places because we remembered them from last year. They, obviously, don’t remember us. We are just two of two to three hundred thousand people they see each year. In fact, in one of those cafes off the main road, they didn’t recognize me three times after we ordered our normal breakfast.  Every time I was near the bar, they welcomed me and asked what I wanted.

There was one alternative route today that would have given fantastic views of the valley that we walked in but I was not in the mood to add 1.7km and a lot of elevation gain to a stage that I knew we would struggle with. 

The last 6km of the day from Las Herrerías to Laguna is brutal. The sun was not supposed to show until 3:00pm but it didn’t get the memo.  It was draining our energy starting about 9:30am, as soon as it could peek into the valley.  We knew the last 6km had about 600m of elevation gain but by the time you get there, there are no real alternative options. Every single person reaching Laguna looks shell-shocked, including Melanie and me.  There are some flat bits but the steepness of the climbing causes us to rest every few hundred meters or so.  We rested a whole hour, in total on this section  The trail is mostly loose large rocks too which make the walk harder too.  Many of the trees in the forest around the trails in this last 6km are beautiful chestnut trees.  To insult our attempt to reach the mountain pass into Galicia, the chestnut trees regularly bomb us with larger chestnuts.  I was just chatting with three other pilgrims and two of them, got the same bang on their head that I did.  I have never enjoyed roasted chestnuts but I might start now as revenge.  

Other small snippets from today…. We are staying in an albergue, the only option in town.  There are only seven people in the room and I’m hoping I’m the only one that snores.  I don’t want someone waking me up because they can’t turn onto their stomach.   We got the hospilera to do our washing but Melanie and I just hung it one the line. It will have two hours of sunshine. I hope that’s enough. 

A Korean couple passed us today and I gave them the normal greeting in their language, roughly “Ang nee ong ha seyo”. They both turned to me surprised and grate but the the wife asked me where I  learned that because – and I quote her exactly “your pronunciation is perfect”.   I blushed and and immediately said thank you in Korean, to impress her further, roughly “gam sa haam nee da”.  Then she said “sorry, what was that?”  I crawled back into my shell and hid my face.  

Along one stretch of the road, we saw two pilgrims picking through the bushes so we went to investigate. They said they were picking wild blueberries and the had a large bagful collected already. I when over a picked a big, juicy one for Melanie.  While I was choosing one for myself, Melanie popped hers in her mouth. Jest as quickly she spit it out and said “those aren’t blueberries! They are bitter and the have large pits.  The guys kept picking more.

I have tried desperately to not be bothered by the the biking pilgrims but it’s hard…. very hard.  While walking on the the path next to the road early this morning in the dark, we had a parade of about ten bikes, including mostly e-bikes, ringing their bells to say ”there is not enough room on this trail for bikes to pass pilgrims so please get out of our way”.  It was still pitch black out and only a few had lights.   The shoulder of the road was where many bikers rode their bikes and they didn’t bother anyone.  Also, remember that really tough climb in the last 6km that took us almost two and a half hours to cover?  Now imagine an e-mountain bike gliding past you in a particularly difficult spot.  I am surprised the guy didn’t get lynched.

At dinner, our seats at the window overlooking the towns only street, we had a perfect view of the nightly the nightly “Walking of the Cows”.  Hemingway wrote about that too but many people only remember about the running of the bulls, which has an edge on the drama.

As you know, Melanie and I try to make sure no pilgrim eats alone. We may stop that now. We had a German woman join us for dinner tonight. Melanie and I both ordered the ribs but she had hers with rice and I had salad.  Our new friend ordered the pork loin with rice. When the meals came, the two ribs came out first, and looked delicious. I indicated the one with salad was mine and our friend grabbed the other..the waitress, Melanie and I were confused and tried to figure out what to do.  While the waitress quickly brought over the pork loin (to jog her memory), Melanie asked, “Oh, you got the ribs and rice too?”.  The woman replied “Yes” and started eating.  Whether she forgot or was misunderstood – by three people – when ordering, we don’t know.

Goodnight and peace y’all.  Goodnight and sweet dreams to George, Leo and Stella