Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Still thinking about the walking

this time last year ....Guemes - a fantatstic albergue run by Papa Ernesto.

https://plus.google.com/109066130531552117997/about?gl=nz&hl=en

https://es-es.facebook.com/pages/Albergue-de-G%C3%BCemes/146383372055587

It was quite a spectacular place to stay overnight - a community built around providing hosting for pilgrims and supporting the local community.

Here  also met Joel, a kiwi based in London who wanted a cheap holiday ! It was nice hearing a kiwi accent again.
My post from last year...

Guemes. ..258km so far

What a day! It was 23.5km with the last 6km in high heat..upper 20 degrees. .quite a difference from the last 4 or 5 at 14 or 15 degrees.
The first part was from Sontana to Nojo. After a couple  of kms we hit the beach..went over a hill and onto a 5km beach...it was so good to be walking on the hard sand after days and days on the highway. A coffee in Nojo and we headed inland, sort of doubling back on ourselves.
It was very nice to be walking thru more rural land on rural paths and roads, but the temperature rose dramatically. Trying to maintain the 5km per hour was much harder today but I was very pleased with my bladder pack in the pack..having water on tap as it were certainly made it easier for me.
I don't know if I have mentioned my food bag- forgive me if I am repeating myself. I have a macpac drybag clipped to my pack's waist belt. In it I put bread, snickers bars, kiwifruit etc... and I just snack as I go. It means that I can keep going but more importantly I have energy when I arrive at places.
Arriving at this albergue was a surprise... greeted with a glass of cold water and food. It is run by a community that supports peregrinos ad well as missions in South America.  They have a real gift for hospitality that is way above any thing else I have seen so far. The albergue is set in huge groups with lots of quiet places...plugs to charge phones etc... shady verandas...lovely art work. It is a real refuge.
Dinner tonight promises to be great.
Tomorrow will see me head into Santander where some of our group will leave the camino.
My guide book is split into 31 stages and up to now I have completed 10 of them. One third of the way thru... it still can't believe the distance done so far.  I don't think I had really believed that I could have done this much.
No photos in this blog..having to conserve my data a bit.
Adios amigos





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