Day 10. Los Arcos

A pleasant, short 21 km walk today on natural paths. I had only walked 5 km when I came across a place offering pilgrims as much free wine as they wanted from an outdoor spout. We’re in wine country wine country surrounded by by vineyards and olive groves. It was just 9:00 am , so I only took a sip with a little water - very dry. Shortly after the 5 km point, a fork in the road gave us the option of taking a longer, level route or a shorter, steeper one. We opted for the latter. The two routes came together about 5 kms from Los Arcos, today’s destination. I walked the whole 21 kms accompanied by Thomas, from Germany, who did an excellent job maintaining the conversation in English. He is recently retired, and set a healthy pace. He knew a lot about botany, identifying all the plants and birds as we progressed. The only issue was that he identified the German name for each tree type, so I didn’t learn much. We did spot a few cherry trees along with the sound of a cuckoo bird. I did recognize the many oak and pine trees.
Thomas and I parted in Los Arcos as he went to a town 5 kms further. I later connected with a group of fellow pilgrims a few hours later in the town square. The first thing I enjoy after a long walking trek is a shower, then the next step is having a beer- just one seems to do the trick. Tonight, I connected with a few Americans, two Danes, an Aussie, and a Kiwi. One American, from Michigan, named Tony, was a real treat. He suddenly decided to do this trip two weeks ago, and when his work refused to give him the time off, he quit, much to his wife’s chagrin, they’re still on speaking terms. According to him , the most important job he does is shop for his wife, and three daughter’s clothes . He had us in stitches with one story after the other. His most endearing quality was his ability to laugh at himself.
Today was easy, but tomorrow is another story. Many people have foot issues and tomorrow’s distance is 50% longer than today, so I’m hoping for an early start.Meer informatie