Fonfria-Pintin 13 miles

Today was my first psychologically difficult day. I’ve reached the point where my feet are wholly unhappy plus I’m missing my babies and the comforts of home. So I’m feeling a little weepy.

There were two routes we could take today. One was flatter but 7 km (4+ miles) longer. We opted for shorter. Laura went on ahead while I took a longer break because I really wanted to try to go the full 17 miles today. Then I accidentally took the longer route. Fortunately I figured it out before too long but I didn’t need that extra 1/2 mile on a day like today.

On our shorter but not-flat route, the ups felt endless and the downs became agonizing. I slowed to practically a crawl out of concern about falling and because walking on the balls of my feet causes me a lot of pain. So I do this slow shuffle where I land on my heels and crouch a little so that my knees don’t take the brunt of it. So my quads were screaming at me too. Every body part would like a word with me, apparently.

At one point, there were two paths ahead, one that went up and one that went steeply down. I knew that if the descent was the Camino path I’d burst into tears. Thankfully it wasn’t.

I finally made it to Pintin, a town that had an open restaurant, and I went in, got myself an Orange Aquarius, and asked them to call me a cab to Sarría, where we are staying tonight.

I texted with my friend Donna from Charlottesville, whom I haven’t seen since last Thursday, because I knew she was in Sarría tonight too. Turns out she’s staying across town. We laughed about the fact that it’s easier to drive three hours to Charlottesville than it is to walk 20 minutes after a day like today. We won’t see each other again most likely—at least not in Spain. But I’m grateful that she was one of the wonderful friends I made on the Camino.Read more