Río

If I stay in Palas de Rei today, then tomorrow I'm unlikely to finish my 28km before heavy rain is predicted from 2pm. The rain started gently at 12 today but by the time I'd finished my very excellent rest soup the sun had come back out, so I was planning to extend today's walk and do an extra 3km dry today than wet tomorrow.

The second I stepped into PdR it started pissing it down and after a few hundred metres I realised I was sheltering exactly under the albergue id stay at if I stayed here....so I admitted defeat and checked in. By the time I got the sheets on the bed it cleared up again and now I'm stuck here WITH NO WIFI. I don't really mind. When the Camino has plans for you, don't struggle. I have a bottom bunk and a power point, the shower had a door. I am positively rich in blessings. I'll just try to haul myself up a bit earlier tomorrow.

The theme park fear has eventuated by the way, as you can probably sense. It's a bit like turning up for an exam you've studied for and realising the test hall is full of people drinking coffee and reading magazines. You're happy for them, but this is actually quite important to you and it's hard to concentrate.

I can't really complain about this because there will always be someone with a more justified perspective in which I am the perpetrator. Ugh she only started in SJPP/is walking the stages/isn't religious/hasn't gone to mass every night. But on a very subjective personal level, it's as if someone has taken the romance of it all, clubbed it fiercely about the head, and propped it, bleeding, in the corner of the room. It's still there, but it's harder to look at.

Something I like about myself is my near pathological ability to find a silver lining, and in this case I think I've stuck to form. I think the Camino is taking a gradual descent in both physical and metaphysical planes which will ease my transition out of it. And what a gift that is! If I was stepping out of the thick of it, I would mourn it so fiercely. This, a sad whimper rather than a bang, will be easier to move on from.

Accordingly, I've been looking up a hotel for after Santiago de Compostela (ScD) where I'll launch Project Recuperate. I want a nice private room with a private bathroom for two nights. This will give me the first non-bunk bed, non-check out experience of the entire trip, where I have been in constant motion. When I tell you I can't wait to be a queen bed with real sheets past 7am...Read more