El Camino: Negreira

I must admit to being relieved that today’s journey was a lot more prosaic than those final kilometers into Santiago. I walked, I talked to a few people along the way. I got hot and tired and footsore, and stayed entirely grounded in a familiar world.

I got up early enough to leave Santiago with the sunrise, which means I left before I could get coffee. Fortunately for my caffeine addiction, there was a charming cafe about two hours into the walk, and I was able to get a banana and a latte. *whew*  

I must say, nothing adds a bit of spice to a 21km jaunt like climbing a 2km hill with a 10% grade (they were kind enough to post a sign warning cyclists of the grind ahead, I also took it to heart.) about halfway through the hike. Thank goodness it came after the coffee stop. It was enough to make me question, all over again, “what do I think I’m doing here?” The answer, somewhat to my surprise, was, “I’m walking to the end of the world - and I didn’t really expect the ground to be level along the way. So, "shush!” I shushed and kept climbing.

I finished the hill intending to stop for one more extended break, but this is where my habit of sticking with somewhat arbitrary decisions came back to bite me in the already sore toe. I randomly decided I was going to stop when I’d reached the marker showing 72km on the countdown to the coast. There was a lovely little area with tables in the shade at marker 74km, but I pressed on, determined to make it the extra 2km before stopping. Well, I made it that far, then ended up continuing the final 4km without a break, because there was not a single quiet, shady place to rest between there and my hotel for tonight. The path was either in the sun or next to traffic, and there was not a large rock, where I could rest my feet for a moment, to be seen. 

Perhaps, just perhaps, this will teach me that it’s ok, sometimes, to stop short of a goal. Especially the arbitrary ones!

That’s ok. I’m here, showered, and doing all the things I need to do to convince my feet they do, in fact, want to take another walk in the morning. At least it’s ‘just’ 20km. I mean that’s a whole kilometer less than I walked today…

Photos: the welcome return of my trail guides; a golden morning goodbye to the cathedral; the only old church with a bell I saw today - at least there was the one!