This is a sad day for us for so many reasons. We are leaving everyone behind today to continue on to Finisterre via Muxia. We started off first thing this morning saying goodbye to George (who was very rushed to make his train–he apparently overslept a bit since him and Richard violated curfew and didn’t get in until well past 1:30).
George is heading back to St Jean tomorrow to retrieve the rest of his junk. It’s going to be a two day journey for him to get there so he’s going to have another couple of nights in my favorite city on the Camino–Pamplona. He’s still a little too early for the “running of the bulls” but it’s probably just as well since it would quickly turn into the goring of the George because his feet are still hurting. George has hiked well over 400 miles between the Camino and the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. Not bad for his first attempt (and he’ll probably say “last attempt”) at long distance hiking. Hats off to George for sticking to the trails and walking through all the pain. I’d really like to know how much weight he has lost–too bad he will probably eat it back on in the next 3 months of sight seeing he is planning.
After George got off (meaning on the way to the train station; I have no idea what all he was up to last night), Richard cooked us breakfast once again. Richard knows his way around the toaster! We had fresh peaches, coffee, and toast–a fortified pilgrim’s meal if there ever was one. We quickly packed up and vacated the apartment to head to the Plaza do Obradoiro to meet Katherine at 9.
Richard dropped his rucksack off at the pension he is staying at tonight and just brought his speedo and thongs in a sack to see us off. He’s planning on water somewhere today but hasn’t decided where yet. He’ll also spend some time with Kat and Shaun today before he heads back to England tomorrow.
When we got to the plaza, Andrea, Caroline, and Margaret were just arriving. Caroline has hiked all the way from Belgium and speaks 7 languages that we could count. She is an amazing lady. We’ve been hiking with them on and off since Pamplona where Andrea started the trail. I’m glad we got to see them again before we left. We might get to see Andrea next weekend when her daughter flies into Santiago. They are also planning on Finesterre this week, but not Muxia. We might even see them out there at “the end of the world.”
Goodbyes completed (we will visit Richard in England and he might even hike with us for a trail in November) we hit the road with Katherine. It feels extremely weird to not be hiking with Shaun. He was one of the first person’s we met on the Camino (way back at the airport in Biarritz) and we spent way more time with him on the trail than anyone else. I’m sure he’s relieved to see us go after more than 5 weeks together. Shaun is amazingly funny and really made our Camino a fun experience–we will miss him.
The forecast for the day is 35+C (95 F) so all the smart people were starting out to Fisterra around 6a–we started hiking a little before 9:30. Spoiler alert–we eventually run into Pete and he arrived at our Albergue at 10:15 and was having a beer before we even got off the concrete of Santiago.
To quote Matthew Broderick “It was hot. Africa hot.” Being from the Midwest we all know it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. It was just a shade below 150% humidity. It felt like I had just gotten out of a swimming pool, and not in a good way where your clothes are cool. It was miserable walking and we had 14 miles of this to look forward to.
On the bright side, the trail out of Santiago is actually very nice and has a lot of shade. We were truly walking on a trail in the woods. We had a climb right away leaving town, but it afforded us great views back of where we had been the last few days.
Even though the view was great and exhilarating, I was ready for a break. Unfortunately, the first cafe is over 6 miles out of town and we were barely started. It was great to have the crowds of the last 100K into Santiago be nothing but a bad memory. We never saw more than 5 other people at a time. Still more crowded than we are used to, but this is a great transition to the GR10 for us.
Nearly 5 miles in, we came across an entrepreneur selling hot coffee and warm drinks in the forest. 95+ out and both Pam and Katherine get hot coffee. I opted for a very warm Aquarius and a melted KitKat. Not the most satisfying second breakfast, but I needed fuel.
Not a half mile after our forest break, we emerged on to a road with a real cafe which we had to skip. There was supposed to be another bar in just another 2 miles that we could stop at instead.
2 miles turned into 4 before we finally found a place. Even though I always carry a couple liters of water, I rarely drink it. When we got to the bar, we exposed feet to air, got some snacks, and I downed over 1.5 liters of fresh cold water straight from the bathroom. If I get sick again, I am definitely blaming Pam since she got me the water. I know she’ll claim the bar as the water source, but I have my doubts.
In theory, we only had 5-6 miles left to Negreira, but Africa hot makes distances grow exponentially. After a couple more miles, I told Pam I was going to have to have another stop before we made it to our planned stop. Pam’s face was the color of a lobster, sweat was dripping off her face, and her butt was trying to eat her underwear–she was in agreement. Katherine is shipping her pack ahead so only carrying a light weight day pack. She has a tendency to skip a lot on the road and tell us to hurry up, but even she was sweating a lot and agreed to a stop.
We saw a nice flowing river off the side of the road which had a shady bar next to it. Nirvana. More salty French fries, olives, and a Diet Coke and I was ready for the final 3 miles. 1/8 of a mile later, I was ready for another stop. Africa hot!
Surprisingly, we eventually made it into Negreira and found the Albergue Katherine had shipped her pack to. When we went into the dorm I was in shock–air conditioning! Most building in Spain have stone walls over 2′ thick so they usually stay pretty cool. We’ve only been in AC one other time in Portomarin (which caused me to drink for a bit longer than usual). The host offered us our choice of beds in the air conditioned dorm with 28 beds, or the more intimate, smelly, non AC dorm with only 10 beds. I could work with the crowded AC dorm (there were almost 20 empty beds).
It was only 4, but we were beat. When we dropped out packs, Pete woke up enough to ask us what took us so long. He had his first beer at 10:15 and was getting a little bored after nearly 6 hours in the AC. We said we’d wake him up when we were ready to go eat.
The restaurant next to the Albergue serves beer and pizza along with the usual pilgrim meals. I need a break from tuna in my salad and pork in it’s many forms, so I opted for pizza trying to expand my culinary pallet and opting for something new. It’s not Mackies in Marion, IL–the best thin crust pizza in the USA (John, that’ll be a complimentary pizza next time I’m in) but it wasn’t bad.
After an after dinner ice cream, I was ready to call it a day. Pam wanted to cut nails. I told her as long as I don’t have clippings on me or my bed, I was all for it. I was out before 9.