Confusion about leaving time! We set our alarm for 3 with the view to leave at 4 and Angela set hers for 2.45 with the view of leaving at 3. At 3.15 she impatiently knocked at our door and wanted to know what was happening! Left at 4 for the long and winding road to Hospital de Bruma. Now picking up writing this blog a month after our return (Sorry! New term at a new school has left me in bed at 8:30 every night!!)
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| I was led to believe that the Camino Ingles was lined with armchairs |
The thing about caminos is that is can be horrible in that you are stretched to your limit physically and you want to at times stamp your little feet and go “I am not moving this has to all stop” So like Shannon in Lost series 1 I had a couple of sulks today. Round about dawn, I remember there was some light I said that I was stopping and sat outside someone’s house on their bench (surely they wouldn’t begrudge an old pilgrim?) Martin and Angela ignored me and continued uphill round the corner where they found a bus stop with a seat!! I thought this was an ideal spot for breakfast but Martin was anxious to make headway and made the fatal mistake of trying to separate me from a banana moment, by telling me there was going to be somewhere much better to stop further on. “What? Do think there are ****ing armchairs waiting for us 2 miles down the road???!!” Because, as we all knew, there was not going to be anything to sit on unless we found a cafe or (not). He was only trying to be helpful poor man.
One banana later my sugar levels started to rise and my enthusiasm with it and we continued until we stopped and laid down on the side of the road. Literally. Martin went first then Angela then me all in a line by the edge of road. No pavement or pedestrian area. Didn’t bother to take off our rucksacks so laid there like upturned turtles and went to sleep. I did think that it would make a good photo but felt too knackered to reach to the bum bag for my camera. Woke up to the noise of lorries driving past our heads.
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We got up and went looking for some armchairs. Stopped briefly at Leiro a small hamlet to: you guessed it take off our boots and socks and rest up.
Arrived at Bar Julia having seen only forest and country lanes on the way and rested. Boots and socks off. Hot chicken noodle soup and beer is a fantastic combo! By now this was half eleven. With hindsight, we should have left when we felt restored an hour later. But, we wanted to walk together as a group and we didn’t think we had too far to go and we had called the others who were only 15 mins away and so we decided to wait a bit longer and finish the walk together. Everyone arrived we had a nice lunch and then decided to wait till the heat of the day was gone as it was too hot to walk in the heat. We left at 5 thinking that we only had 11km to go but the problem for me Martin and Ang was that we had been up since 4 and it was to prove too long a day for us.
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| Hot tip: How to take a rest without anyone else knowing - talk about the pretty flowers! |
The scary steep climb proved to be fairly insignificant after all we had been through so far and we stopped for a celebratory beer at the Cafe in Vizono. We left at 7 with only 7km to go but somehow this took forever. Did we get lost I can’t remember but Dave and Martin went on ahead to make sure could get a place at the Albergue. We were on our last legs when we arrived at 10:00. It was lights out at 10:30 and we had to have a shower and it would have been nice to have eaten something. Angela had her “losing the plot on the camino moment” while me and Martin saved ours for the next day. Didn’t sleep well for some reason (we were sleeping right by that woman in the video of the empty albergue earlier and I did hit my head when I stood up)
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