The Camino gives and the Camino takes. Today, the Camino gave us more miles than the maps and sheets said. It also gave us higher temps than were forecasted so we got very near 38C (100F). The Camino took all of the patience I thought I had built up. The new Zen Curtis might have taken a small leap backwards.
I suppose it started with the dog barking at 3:30 this morning. I normally love dogs and miss Ilana terribly, but she knows to stay quiet at night. The hound from hell that was allegedly guarding the cow herd 50′ from our window (the cow herd that is adding to climate change with their bovine emissions–I’d like to kill them all and have a big barbecue; only those who actually read this blog are invited). Cow smells do not grow on you through the night. After 10 hours of constant manure barrage, the smell actually settles in your nostrils so you have the shadow of the smell with you all day.
After our breakfast at 7 which we paid twice the amount we normally would (I suppose they must make up for all the bed fees they don’t collect), we started out with road walking. In fact, over 12 of the miles we put in today were on roads. This was easily one of the worst hiking days since the Meseta. The first stop was almost 7 miles of road walking before we finally found a cafe. The list we have is no where near accurate or up to date.
I’m not an easily irritated person (everyone needs to shut up now because I only get irritated with stupidity) but today got me. The visitor’s center in Santiago is handing out maps and trail listings that are crap. The further you get from Santiago, the worse the errors become. 4 miles of error isn’t bad if you’re driving, but it’s a real ball buster if you are walking (that’s referring to the balls of your feet). Since the majority of the trail is on road, it wouldn’t require a Herculean effort to drive out and make sure the listings are accurate. I know; this is Spain–manana.
Even the trail split between Muxia and Fisterra wasn’t right. To the highway department’s credit, it was well marked with a new intersection. The only bright spot to today is that we ran into Fanny again before the intersection. She is still so sweet to us because of the first day on the trail. All we did was make sure she was OK and she hasn’t forgotten that we stopped to check on her. We told her our plans for the rest of the week and she may come along with us.
There was an article in the paper in Santiago that said Camino attendance is UP 20% this year. The Camino is big $ for Northern Spain as evidenced by all the new highway construction and revitalized small towns. Maybe spend a few minutes making sure that maps are accurate as well (but I digress).
Dumbria also moved further down the road by about 3 miles. Katherine had her pack shipped forward to the Dumbria Municipal Albergue. We passed an Albergue on the edge of town, but it didn’t say it was the municipal. We walked another half mile into town to only find out that was the municipal after all. 3 different people told us there was only one Albergue in town and we passed it 1/2 mile ago. I was livid.
I was too hot and pissed to do anything other than sit down and cool off. I headed to the only open bar on the street and ordered an ice cream and Diet Coke. Once my core temperature went down, I had the energy to make the trek back (I hate to back track). There was no attendant in the Albergue but they left a note saying to choose a bed and they’d come back later to collect the 6 Euros. We chose the furthest empty room in the hopes that we would get a private room since no one in their right mind would be out hiking in this heat. Ultimately, we were right. We got an 9 person room to ourselves.
With 6 Euro beds, there are some things missing like wifi and food. Pam took a nap while I took a shower and did laundry. When her majesty got up and hosed off as well, we went into town in the hopes of finding an open restaurant. We got lucky and found a restaurant/super macado that served good (albeit expensive) pilgrim meals. This tied our most expensive meal on the while Camino at 12 Euros (for salad, chicken breast, potatoes, ice cream, bread, wine, and water).
When we were finishing up, Fanny came in and joined us. We discovered she is a Buddhist and vegetarian. She has had pretty slim pickings on this trip. Pretty much bread and salads at restaurants and fruit from super markets during the day. She also invited us to visit her in Taiwan which she may live to regret because I’m trying to figure out how to add that into our winter in SE Asia in 2019/20. She also bought us all after dinner coffees and a bag of chips for tomorrow. We also discovered she has been traveling to Europe for at least a month every year for the last several years.
Pam and I picked up a couple of bananas for breakfast tomorrow and headed back to the Albergue. It was after 9 and Pam was afraid she was going to turn into a pumpkin.