Cossourada to Valenca

Another beautiful day. They all said today would be easy, only 12 k ish. There were steep ascents and steeper descents, over cobblestone, Roman road boulders, loose river rocks, and dirt trails. I slowed way down on the rough and steep places. After the morning rush passed me by, it felt like I was alone for hours.
Valenca is a big city. It took another hour or two after passing the “Welcome” sign to find my way to the classic fortress, the original city, with buskers and street vendors and my goodness crowds! And at the northern tip, my hotel. I see Spain from my window.

I’m just gonna say, 12 k ish ain’t easy for me.

After a recovery nap, I decided I should get some protein to eat since the piece of processed ham lunchmeat for breakfast was all I ‘d had, but I couldn’t get the chain off the door. I tried different angles, different direction of force. I wondered if I could use my scissors as a phillips head screwdriver. I finally called the front desk. She came up, reached her skinny wrist inside the door and also couldn’t budge it. She went to another room to try it there, then she came back, reached her skinny wrist in, pressed the button at the top with her index finger and easily pulled up the chain with her other fingers. Glad the chain is so protective 🫤. Glad I got rescued.

Inner journey: thinking about what makes me nervous- loose and pointy rocks, going down steep hills, heights, social situations, applying for a job, starting over, doing something new. Antidote- focus and taking it slow, seems to apply.

In the middle of the night, when the temperature is not right, the bladder talks, and my travel CPAP is blowing all over my face, and every …thing ….aches, I don’t want to do this anymore.
My intentions: walk for peace - acknowledged by the white dove. Build confidence and courage – that happened just in getting myself here. What’s next – I feel so in love with nature while I’m here and I’ve dreamt about gardening again. And a pilgrim yesterday suggested I look into doing IT for organizations that do human service of some kind. I don’t know about that. I don’t know if I want to go back into that kind of work. I feel like I would like to support local parks and walkways, that the gift of having a pleasant walk is perhaps bigger than we can imagine.

So am I done? I stay in Valenca tonight, which is the last town in Portugal. I will probably cross the river Minho into Spain tomorrow just for kicks since its a rest day. My hotels are booked so if I leave, I probably lose.
I get that I cannot do the 20k and 24k walks scheduled since 12 seems to be my absolute limit even beyond my limit if the path is rough. I will research options.Läs mer