Resetuj wyszukiwanie
CaminoCamino
SatelitaEdytuj trasę

Camino

maja - lipca 2023
Walking the Camino Frances Czytaj więcej
  • 43ślady stóp
  • 2kraje
  • 45dni
  • 635zdjęcia
  • 2filmy
  • 657kilometry
Obserwuj Kalendarz Dzielić Lista postanowień
Data rosnąco
  • PodróżnikCamino
    11
    Dzień 31

    Day 30, Riego to Ponferrado

    22 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    As usual, I woke up at 6am even though we’d agreed last night to a late start since we only had a short walk. However, I’d slept like a log and had no complaints. Fiona snoozed on until I woke her at 7.40 (an outrageous lie-in!) We set off around 8.30, stopping first in the garden of our albergue to pick cherries, following our hostess’s enthusiastic invitation yesterday evening. This was breakfast.
    Our walk began with a rather tricky descent along the bedrock of a river (luckily only a small stream at the moment). The weather was chilly and a mist hung over the mountains. I moved at a characteristically cautious rate which meant Fiona had a long rest at the bottom while she waited for me.
    Our first stop was at the lovely Alpine-like village of Molinaseca, approached across a Roman bridge, where we had coffee and toast and bumped into friends.
    The sun came out as we left the village and by the time we reached our destination it was quite hot. We’re staying tonight at Ponferrado which was a significant settlement even before Roman times. Its medieval castle dominates the old town, built around 1218 by the Knights Templar, apparently to protect pilgrims to Santiago. Despite visiting the castle I haven’t been able to work out why the Knights Templar needed a huge castle to protect pilgrims - I’d have thought it would have been more useful, though less heroic, to run a little police force along the route to protect from thieves and brigands. From what we’ve read, the Moors were defeated in this region around 850 and I haven’t managed to ascertain who the brave Templars were fighting in Ponferrado for a hundred years until the order was dissolved in 1312. Whether useful or not, their castle is very beautiful and well worth a visit.
    We returned to our albergue, Alea, which is in a residential area, close to a school and surrounded by flats. It feels urban and quite distinct from the tourist centre. Here we had a vegetarian meal - hurrah! Lentil soup, veggie quiche with salad and an orange. And red wine, sangria and water on offer besides. As usual, our fellow diners were an eclectic bunch. There was a Belgian who’d walked from Le Puy in France, a Japanese man who didn’t speak at all, a Spaniard who’d cycled the Camino from Seville and was in his way home to Gijon on the Northern coast, our Canadian friend, Anna, and a woman from Mexico who said she was walking in the hope of finding peace after the death of her son last year. This is the Camino.
    Tomorrow we have a longer walk and the weather appears to be hotting up alarmingly. We are planning a 6.30 start (I seem more enthusiastic about this than Fiona) to avoid walking in the warmest part of the day.
    Before I finish, I want to mention how cheap it is to be a pilgrim. Tonight’s accommodation, a five-woman dorm, cost 15 euros and dinner here was 12 euros. Last night we paid 20 euros each for a private en-suite room and about 15 each for dinner. At the moment, I think it probably costs less for me to be a pelegrina than to be living at home. Maybe this is why some people become perpetual pilgrims! Apparently they get to Santiago and then start walking the route in reverse. It’s a good thing I have work to return to and limited stamina or I might succumb to this madness.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    1
    Dzień 32

    Day 31, Ponferrado to Pieros

    23 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    We set out at 6.45 this morning because the forecast promised worryingly hot weather and I was keen to get as much mileage under our belt as possible while it was still cool. Anna, who’d stayed in our dorm last night, walked with us for the first couple of hours. This morning’s wasn’t the most exciting route - we left the city and walked along a surprisingly busy country road for several kilometres. It would have been more relaxing if there’s been a pavement but nonetheless it was interesting to see how people live on the outskirts of a small city like Ponferrado. Lots of small holdings, some with a few sheep, many with great vegetable gardens; very little of it looked affluent.
    After a couple of coffee breaks we were delighted to find ourselves among vineyards and olive groves and well away from traffic. This was an absolute treat, especially appreciated because we hadn’t expected it.
    We stopped a little while at the lovely town of Cacabelos where we bumped into Anna again and ordered iced coffees (hot coffee plus a glass of ice) and a plate of Padron peppers. Fiona and I were both taken with this place and wondered if we should have stayed here, as Anna was doing.
    Instead we pressed on to Pieros to our vegetarian albergue. The people are nice (mostly volunteers), it’s very cheap (20 euros for bed and dinner) but it really is in the middle of nowhere and I am seriously wondering if we haven’t made a mistake. Cacabelos was very appealing and the next town, Villafranca del Bierzo, is also supposed to be lovely. There’s nothing here but a closed-up church and some vineyards.
    We had hoped to visit an old monastery which is 4 kms away but it proved expensive and precarious to rely on a taxi and neither of us were keen to add another 8kms of walking to today’s mileage given the heat. We were both feeling a bit frustrated until we learned we could catch a local bus back to Cacabelos where we could do wild swimming. This was just what we needed - it was cooling and lovely in the river where, apart from us, the average age of swimmers was probably about 12 years old.
    Tonight we had a communal meal at our very quiet albergue - the two of us and a German man who we’ve met before but haven’t managed to speak to for lack of a common language (though he is friendly and often offers to take pictures for us on the route) and a German woman who we did manage to talk to a little with the help of Google translate.
    I’m feeling full and tired and am hoping for a good night’s sleep because we are planning to leave in the morning at 6.30. The weather forecast suggests temperatures of 36 degrees by lunchtime so we need to have covered as much ground as possible before then.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    1
    Dzień 33

    Day 32, Pieros to Pradela

    24 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We started at 6.30 this morning to try to minimise the time we were spending in the heat of the day. Forgetting my charger slowed us down a bit but we still made good progress across the lovely hilly paths to our first town, Villafranca del Bierzo. We arrived around 8 and were impressed by its castle and multiple churches.
    Leaving Villafranca we had a choice - the normal route alongside a road and a river or the more arduous option of climbing into the hills and walking to our destination at a higher altitude. Obviously Fiona wanted to do the hill walk but I was in two minds about whether I should go with her or opt for the easier but more boring route.
    In the event I did climb the vertiginous concrete path out of town and became committed to walking into the mountains. I didn’t regret it. Before long we were looking down on the town and across the countryside. We enjoyed one of the most beautiful walks of the whole Camino and, amazingly, we didn’t meet another soul. The route was steeply uphill for a while and then plateaued, affording wonderful views of Villafranca and the hills that surround it.
    After a fairly arduous 10km we stopped at a tiny village, Pradela, where we had heard there was marvellous chestnut cake and coffee to be had. We liked it so much (it was only 11.30 am) we decided it was lunchtime. We ordered goats cheese salad and a plate of roasted peppers followed by yoghurt with chestnuts, all if it accompanied by the family’s own wine. We were enchanted.
    Instead of doing the sensible thing and walking another 40 minutes downhill to the town we were aiming for, we decided to stay the night in this little bit of paradise.
    After admiring the hostess’s cat family, having a snooze, a shower, some lovely phone calls and doing a bit of washing, we sat on the terrace with a beer waiting for dinner. We were surprised to be joined by another pilgrim, Matt from Galway, who had walked 45 kms today, had taken the harder route by mistake and thought he’d arrived in Trabadelo, the next town. Matt is an electrician at home and is walking to a strict deadline - hence the mad distances he’s covering each day. He told us his mother had been doing parts of the Camino for years and that was partly his inspiration.
    We sat on the terrace and are ate our pilgrim meal together. Matt is planning to leave at 5am tomorrow and Fiona and I have agreed to aim for a 6am departure.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    111
    Dzień 34

    Day 33, Pradela to O Cebreiro

    25 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Our Irish roommate, Matt, was worried before bed that he wouldn’t know what time to get up because his charger was broken and he had no watch. In the event he decided to get up at 4am and leave around 4.30 - his rattling around woke me up pretty thoroughly. A shrieking cockerel and a cacophony of barking dogs conspired to ensure I didn’t get back to sleep after his departure. I don’t know why I ever thought the deepest countryside would be tranquil. We left at 6am, before dawn, again hoping to get as much of the day’s walk done before it became too hot. We speculated about how far Matt had already walked.
    For our first 3kms, we made a steep (and in my case, cautious) descent into Trabadelo, the town where we had planned to stay the night before. And then there was a long stretch of fairly flat walking by the side of a road and a river. Many of the little places we passed through were quite pretty but somewhat blighted by an enormous highway overhead. The only saving grace was the absence of traffic - in stark contrast with the UK, the motorway infrastructure here seems to vastly exceed demand.
    The most challenging part of the day began about 13kms in when we began the steep ascent to O Cebreiro. We were expecting temperatures above 30. I fortified myself first with coffee and a banana and we began the climb after 9.30am. It’s a rise of 630m over about 8kms - and Dominic, who cycled it a few years ago, had mentioned that it was very demanding! Some was through wooded areas and I was grateful for the shade (although Fiona was tormented by flies). Once again, the views were stupendous. When the walking is so hot and arduous, I have to remind myself to stop and look around, because my instinct is just to plod on until the ordeal is over!
    We stopped at every opportunity to rehydrate and, were greatly surprised to bump into Matt, last night’s roommate. We thought he’d be at least 10 kilometres ahead of us but he said he’d realised it was too dark to walk at 4.30 so he’d gone back to sleep on a wall in the village. He intends to walk 40-45 kms every day but I find myself amazed that he ever reaches the destination he’s heading for. He’s an electrician at home - afraid I’d be reluctant to employ him! I really wanted to tell him to get a bus to Sarria to ensure he completes the Camino this time (he’s tried before but he didn’t manage it) however, I stopped myself, mindful that I not his mum.
    At the next village we stopped again and, after a recuperative choc ice, we carried on the climb and crossed into Gallacia, the final Spanish region of our Camino. Within another kilometre we had reached, O Cebreiro, the beautiful little village at the top of the mountain where we are sleeping tonight.
    After a very filling lunch of mounds of goats cheese with quince jelly and honey, we slipped away for a nap and a cold shower (no hot water at all in our albergue). We also rearranged some of our later bookings to try to avoid overly long days in the final week.
    With its curious thatched roofs, O Cebreiro looks quite different from the villages we’ve passed through in Castile and Leon. It’s got great charm and I’m very taken with its Celtic character. (Evident in the music and the jewellery). There are wonderful views from all sides - I’m not sure I’ve been anywhere surrounded by more natural beauty.
    At 7pm we went to mass in the Romanesque church in the village where the lovely priest played church music on his iPhone at strategic moments in the service and addressed the pilgrims in broken English as well as in Spanish, blessing us all before we left and giving each person a stone.
    We had dinner with Ramona and later watched the sun going down together over the hills. We had to stay up until 10pm to catch it but tomorrow is a short day and the temperatures are cooler up here in the mountains so we thought we could allow ourselves a lie-in.
    I’m feeling sad that we are approaching our final week but am trying to savour each day that remains.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    Dzień 35

    Day 34, O Cebreiro to Fonfria

    26 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    What a difference a day makes! We woke up this morning to find O Cebreiro shrouded in mist with last night’s magnificent views completely obscured by cloud. Even though it had been hard to climb in yesterday’s heat, I was hugely grateful to have seen the village in all its glory. Given its elevation I imagine today’s misty conditions are more common.
    We were in no rush to get on the road because we only had a 12km walk so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the bar where we’d eaten dinner last night. We tried to pop back into the church before we left but found it locked this morning.
    For much of today’s walk the weather was cool and the visibility limited though gradually we got a better peek at the mountains which had been hidden by cloud for much of the morning. The wild flowers on the route seemed more like the vegetation you’d see in England and Ireland, perhaps because the climate here is cooler and wetter than earlier sections of our walk.
    We’re staying at an albergue which has been highly recommended by Nick, the vegan chef from Brighton, who we met at Verde. He shares a birthday with me and spent it here (when I was still in Pamplona in my first week of walking). Soon after we arrived, Fiona and I sat out on the terrace with a lovely view of the hills and had a very wholesome bowl of lentil soup with some of the local cheese. The sun is shining but it’s pleasant rather than scorching. The cheese we’re eating is the same variety as the one we ate in such quantities yesterday but we’ve discovered it’s not goats’ cheese - it’s described as raw cows’ cheese and is a local speciality served with honey.
    We know a few people who are staying here tonight, including our Canadian friend, Anna, and I’m looking forward to our communal meal this evening.
    We have a room to ourselves which does feel like a treat, especially since a couple of our Camino friends have got bed bugs in the last few days in different municipal dormitories. We were thinking the municipal albergue was an essential part of the Camino experience - now I’m not at all sorry to have skipped it.
    Dinner was held in a traditional thatched Galician building and was a very enjoyable affair. I sat next to a 78 year old Australian called Paul who described himself as a 10 pound pom although in fact he’d emigrated as a geology graduate to work in the nickel mines. He lives in a remote desert area of Australia north of Perth where his nearest town is 450 kms away. This is his 8th Camino - he always cycles - and he is taking it easy this time. We talked about faith, the Catholic Church, the advantages of life in a remote Australian town and the sale of council houses in UK. It felt very typical of the sort of meaningful conversation you can have with a complete stranger on the Camino.
    Before we retired to bed, I used the pharmaceutical vending machine to stock up on moisturiser although impressively, foot treatments and bandages were also available. And finally we got tempted to try the local
    Liqueur which is very like Bailey’s but perhaps a bit less sweet (I fear I look like Boris Johnson in the photo recording this moment) before a quick catch up with Anna and off to bed.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    1
    Dzień 36

    Day 35, Fonfriar to Samos

    27 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Oh dear. Yesterday’s conversations about bed bugs exacted a bit of a toll last night. I went to sleep easily but woke up at midnight fretting that I was being bitten, despite sleeping in crisp clean sheets. At one stage I got up and went to the bathroom to check how bad my bites were but couldn’t see any evidence of a single incursion. A night of imagined infestation resulted in lots of tossing and turning and meant I wasn’t on top form as we set off.
    To be fair, it was a lovely clear morning and the early views were beautiful. We were heading downhill for several kilometres and my left ankle was feeling the strain. It’s been a little bit unhappy since Ponferrado, particularly on the descent though it seems perfectly happy going uphill.
    As we walked downwards we were fascinated by the clouds - misty and mysterious to start with, and then appearing as a straight white line that looked like a shard of snowy ice cutting off an otherwise clear view of the hills. Before long we were walking in that cloud and our world became murky though we could see enough to be charmed by the handsome and serene cows who stared at us tolerantly as we passed by and offered overtures of friendship.
    There were some local novelties on the route. A thatched elevated grain store (Fiona knew about these from her trip to Galicia last year - the elevation is to prevent rats from entering the store). We also passed a 100-year old chestnut tree as well as medieval crucifix which, unusually, portrayed the virgin and child on the back. The second half of today’s walk was flat and mostly ran alongside a river so we enjoyed a lot of gurgling though we also heard a bit of traffic noise.
    Our destination was Samos, the site of a monastery for the last 1500 years. We went for a tour, conducted entirely in Spanish, by one of the 11 resident monks. I found the monastery rather strange and didn’t love it as I expected to. It has suffered two major fires over the years and much of what remains is baroque, though there was a lovely Romanesque portal. I was slightly surprised to see the monks were still displaying a picture of Franco’s visit to the monastery in 1943 and reminded myself that George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia observed that the church was seen as thoroughly aligned with the Fascists in the civil war.
    After our tour, I was ravenous but there was little food to be had in Samos; apparently Tuesday is a day of rest for restauranteurs, so we settled for a cheese sandwich and beer. Fiona’s stomach is unsettled and she did not eat hers but I needed crisps and a magnum to fill me up.
    We went to a rather flat mass at the monastery at 7.30. Something is really not working for me here. However, we were intrigued by Callie, our young friend from Arizona, who greeted us silently this evening and showed us on Google translate that she is observing a day of silence. We wondered whether we could manage one before we left. Intriguing idea.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    1
    Dzień 37

    Day 36, Samos to Barbadello

    28 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    I’m in a bit of a panic tonight. My ankle has been quite uncomfortable for about 6 days, especially when walking downhill. Today we walked 20km, which is very much our usual distance, but it became really sore. We are staying at an albergue with a pool and I swam this afternoon, hoping this would ease the problem and I did think it helped. We are due to walk 27kms tomorrow and I was concerned about how I’d cope. I started looking up exercises online to ease ankle problems and did a few.
    I’m not sure if I’ve made it worse but later this afternoon I went out to the tiny village where we’re staying and found walking very painful. By the time I got back my ankle was swollen and I began to wonder - for the first time really - whether I would be able to finish the Camino. I have grown confident over the last 5 weeks that I could do it and I would be so devastated to get this far and have to bail when we only have 5 more walking days to go.
    I’ve decided to take a taxi to the next town (19km to Portomarin) to visit a physiotherapist in the morning. The only appointment available was at 10am and there’s no way I could walk there by that time so a taxi seemed the only option. It’s expensive but I can live with that. I’m feeling worried about whether I can get the problem sorted out and, at the same time, guilty about not walking in the morning. I suppose the best outcome would be to meet Fiona at Portomarin and be able to walk the final 8kms with her to tomorrow’s destination and go on from there to Santiago.
    That’s enough anxiety. Brief highlights of today. We walked 15kms without passing a cafe for breakfast but did enjoy stopping at a private house where they had left out coffee and tea, fruit and cake for pilgrims. This wasn’t a commercial enterprise - they left out a donativo box to cover their expenses - but it is typical of the kindness local people offer to pilgrims on the camino.
    We were surprised to pass a herd of cows walking along the main thoroughfare in one of the villages we passed through, though I suppose they had as much right as we did to be there. The entourage included a very young and sweet little calf. We had a lovely lunch in a veggie cafe in Sarria. Some of the best food of the trip. And we are now 110 kms from Santiago.
    I am writing this with my leg elevated on a pillow with a bag of ice from the bar on my ankle. I’m very much hoping that I’ll be gearing up for a proper day’s walking when I’m writing tomorrow’s blog.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    3
    Dzień 38

    Day 37, Barbadello to Gonzar

    29 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Last night I wondered if I was making a fuss about nothing but this morning my ankle was still very sore. I felt really emotional. After Fiona had set off, I walked to the village church which is about a kilometre away to see how it would fare and was able to confirm to myself that it really hurt. I stayed a while in the church and felt how, in the end, despite the support of friends and family, we have to face life’s challenges, big and small, for ourselves and I wondered whether this sense of individual vulnerability is the source of faith. Then I walked against the flow of pilgrims back to our albergue and found myself wishing other people ‘Buen Camino’ in a strange role reversal after 5 weeks of walking the right way.
    My taxi arrived reliably at 9am and I was driven to Portomarin.
    I found the trip to the physiotherapist surprisingly painful. It occurred to me while Nurinha, my Spanish physio, was poking ruthlessly at the most tender points that, while I’ve financed many visits to physios (for my children), until now I have never attended one myself. When the pain seemed unreasonable I tried to gain perspective by thinking of Cromwell in the Tower facing the prospect of being burnt as a heretic or disembowelled as a traitor (I have at last reached this stage of The Mirror and the Light. And in case anyone is in doubt, in the end he was lucky enough to be beheaded, which was considered a mercy in those brutal days).
    So, all things being relative, I coped with 45 minutes of physiotherapy and at the end of the session I was taped up quite extensively and sent on my way. Nurinha and I struggled to communicate, neither of us being linguists, but she seemed to think I should continue walking if the pain was 3 out of 10 and get a taxi if it rose beyond that level.
    After a trip to the pharmacy, a coffee and a look at Portomarin’s Romanesque church, I decided to begin the walk to our destination. One curious fact about Portomarin is that the original village was deliberately flooded by the municipal authorities and its important buildings painstakingly reassembled at its current location, uphill from the original site, in 1962. This included a 12th century Romanesque church.
    Fiona and Anna were close to Portomarin when I was ready to set out. Unlike me, they had passed the sign that told them there was only another 100kms to Santiago! I reckoned I would walk more slowly than they would, so decided I was better getting a head start.
    The day was overcast and the walk nice but never amazing - for a lot of the way there was forest on one side and a road on the other. So, while it was easy walking and I was grateful for this, it was not spectacular.
    When Fiona arrived at Gonzar, the little village where we are staying tonight, we went together to the Gonzar hostel and had a shared lunch of padron peppers, goats cheese salad and chips. And then, despite having only walked about 12 kms in total today, I napped for an hour.
    After a shower we met Anna for dinner. It hardly seemed necessary to eat again but I managed nonetheless. Looking forward to doing a proper day’s walking!     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    1
    1
    Dzień 39

    Day 38, Gonzar to Ponte Compana

    30 czerwca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    I was really happy to be on the road again this morning at 7am on a bright but chilly day. I sent a lot of the heavier items from my rucksack on ahead in the hope that carrying a lighter bag would ease the pressure on my ankle. Armed with ibuprofen, Fiona and I set off with Anna in pretty perfect walking conditions. Our first stop was at a neglected but very intriguing archeological site at Castromaijor - the site of human habitation from the 4th century BC until the early Roman period. Only a small area appears to have been excavated and there was little explanation but it appeared that we were looking at homes and streets from almost 2 and a half thousand years ago.
    This was a day of gentle landscapes and happy livestock. We passed cattle calmly grazing and then I found myself fascinated to see them feeding as we passed through a village. We saw places where sheep could graze so safely that they appeared to be slumbering though the morning.
    Fiona went off in search of a Romanesque church which the guidebook warned was not always open, offering the advice that you should call Jesus first (number provided) to check whether you could get in. I knew for sure that an extra 4kms would not work for me so we split at this point. (Despite encouraging signage, unfortunately Fiona found the church closed).
    We met again in Palas de Rei, a reasonable sized town, where Anna managed to buy new underwear having mislaid hers a couple of days ago. Fiona and I stopped for a lovely cheese sandwich and then set off again for the final 5 kms.
    Before reaching our destination we stopped at a little artisan shop where we both bought Camino shell earrings. This was hardly the renunciation of worldly goods we thought we’d learned on the Camino - but I have always been sceptical of my ability to give up buying stuff once the opportunity arises again. The huge disincentive on the Camino is the added weight any new purchases would involve - who’s to say abstinence from material goods will have the same attraction when you no longer have to carry them on your back every day.
    Our accommodation tonight is lovely. It seems to be a former mill and is surrounded by water. Our room is charming with a multitude of hefty beams crisscrossing the ceiling and the whole site is beautifully presented.
    Dinner was also lovely. The vegetarian option was simple but really tasty and much appreciated. We spoke to two Australians (Rose and ?), an Italian vegetarian called Sylvia, Kim from California and Catherine from Montpellier.
    All in all, it’s been a lovely day. However, tonight I am worried about the ankle which is pretty sore. I walked 24.5kms today which in retrospect was too far. Tomorrow is just over 20kms - I will do the first 10 and then consider a taxi. I do wish I wasn’t finishing like this.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie
  • PodróżnikCamino
    Dzień 40

    Day 39, Ponte Campana to Ribadiso

    1 lipca 2023, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    I started off rather gingerly this morning, unsure how far I’d manage to walk and wondering if I’d need to stop after about 10km and get a taxi to our destination which was about 22km away. I was happy for Fiona and Anna to go ahead because I didn’t want to feel any pressure to keep up. Bizarrely I actually overtook them at one stage and we all stopped outside the town of Melide at a nice little cafe serving vegetarian food.
    Anna spilt off from us in Melide because she had things to do there (you have to grab the chance to stock up on anything you need in these small towns). Fiona and I set off together but before long I was trailing behind.
    It was a lovely morning, cool and cloudy first thing but still very pleasant when the sun came out around 9.30. The countryside was also pretty and the walking not too demanding - fairly hilly at times but nothing brutal.
    This is our third from last day and I’m annoyed with myself that I am not really savouring it - I’m approaching it like an endurance test. I’m constantly in two minds about the right thing to do. Should I power on (which I’m sure I can do with a bit of help from ibuprofen) despite my ankle or should I stop and protect it to avoid doing longer term damage. I will be so angry with myself if I end up with a long term injury but I just don’t want to give up on the challenge when it’s so close to being complete.
    This afternoon I was very tired when I reached our accommodation. We’ve got a pool which nobody apart from Fiona and I used and I think swimming helped my ankle a bit. I also dipped my leg in the river in the hope the cold water would be beneficial.
    So, hoping for a good night’s sleep, an early start in the morning and a sunnier disposition for our penultimate walk tomorrow.     Czytaj więcej

    Zobacz tłumaczenie