33 km. Sunny in the morning, clouds rolled in midday, sunny again in the afternoon. No rain and cool throughout. Dry all day - thank you, Camino! Perfect walking weather with moderate, manageable hills.
Today was long, but I’m in a weird stretch where the accommodations are staggered at awkward intervals. It was a very special day, though, for two reasons: 1) tomorrow the Camino enters Galicia, the final autonomous community through which the Northern Camino travels, and 2) it was the last day along the coast, as the Camino will now turn inland on its final stretch to Santiago de Compostela.
Because it was the last day along the coast, I added a couple km to follow the alternative coastal route. It was spectacular. Reminiscent of those early weeks. The dry weather and the beautiful coastline made the long walk manageable. The first 10 km was inland, so I cruised through that pretty fast. The middle 13 km was off and on along the coast. That stretch was slow because I left the Camino to take almost every lookout trail. The final 10 km was as fast as my legs and feet would allow. They were irritated, but fell in line and did the job.
I walked mostly alone, although I did come across several friendly pilgrims during the first half of the walk. Of note were Ingrid and Derek from Belgium. We only walked together for about 30 min (I stopped for second breakfast), but they were cool and funny. They have walked five Caminos. I asked how the Caminos compared to each other, and they said each one was different and special. The Northern and the Primitivo they found beautiful, but more difficult than the others because of the incessant climbing. Derek has a vision for a new Camino that only alternates between level ground and a slight downhill grade. I can get behind that. That’s where our mental state is at this point, ha.
The second half of the day I didn’t see any other pilgrims. Where did they all go? I arrived at the albergue in Figueras at 6 pm and was the only one here, although I think I just heard someone else show up. It is great to be off my feet. I stretched, showered, tended to my two new blisters (both on the left foot, as my right foot is less dramatic and just focusing on healing the blisters we already have), and am now heading to dinner.
Oh, one more thing…I have less than 200 km to go. That’s right, I have walked 645 km. BOOYAH!
Photos from the day:
Time for a parade of beautiful ocean shots…
Your walk today looked beautiful. I don’t know how you do that many kilometers with blisters.
It feels like a 3rd grade math question in the making, 'If Terri has walked 645 kms and has 200 kms left to walk...' 🙂