I left the cutest little town today, Ponte de Limas. It was such a pretty, peaceful walk out of town for our destination of Rubiaeus. Thank goodness I had no idea what lay ahead, or I may never have left! I left town along the river, crossed the ancient pedestrian bridge, and made my way into the fields, then the forest, then the mountain! The fields were fun with stone walkways running just inches from the stream, with water so clear you almost didn't know it was there. The forest starting going uphill almost immediately, but it would be a pretty good inclines and then it would level off for a while so you could catch your breath before the next one. This went on for miles and as the top of the mountain got closer, the steeper the climb got. Amazingly, there were many mountain bikers riding up along side us. It is crazy to see them driving up over the rocks and roots and loose dirt! Then came the unexpected, the unimaginable, indescribable. It was a half mile climb, so steep it was like trying to climb stairs, but with rocks and boulders and rivulets of water running down and trees and roots everywhere, and at points climbing through sections where the twisty turny path was only about 18 inches wide with walls of rock and earth up to your thighs. This was certainly not the "easy" Portuguese Camino i thought i was going to be doing. But, guess what. I made it, unscathed and so full of a sense of accomplishment, I was on cloud nine! I have never in my life challenged myself like this. It was a huge test of strength, stamina, and will power. And, it was a bigger test of challenging and facing my fears. There was a good chance I could get hurt, and if I did, I couldn't just call 911. There was no one coming for me. This is the best I can do to describe how great I felt about this, still do actually. But if you feel anything in my retelling of this adventure, multiply by 100 to imagine how good it felt for me.
And then, I got to go all the way down the other side! You think this would be easy, but the downside was equally steep and the trail had all loose dirt and pebbles. And it was very long. It was tough on my knees and I felt like gravity was pulling my 14 lbs backpack and my body along with it, all the way to the bottom.
Once we got to the bottom and back into civilization, we discovered the power outage in Portugal and Spain. While on the mountain we were too busy to realize we had no service. But once down, when we all were trying to get cold drinks and food, we discovered the problem. There were no restaurants or cafes open, but we were able to find a few provisions in a tiny market and we're able to make pasta with red sauce, zucchini and olives. Lucky for us our albergue had a gas stove. But not going out to a dinner made and served to us by restaurant staff somehow seemed to be the perfect end to this wonderously hard day. We were once again proving we were capable and creative and able to overcome hardship.
I really am as strong as I think I am!Read more