“You were never meant to live an ordinary life and simply be happy – you are here to live with wild passion, restless love, inexpressible joy and extraordinary dreams.” – Walk The Earth (found on internet meme)
Today’s hike was hard, we had a huge mountain to climb but it went much better than yesterday because 1. I shipped my pack and I’m so happy I did. My knee and ankle hurt most of the day but were thrilled not to be carrying the extra weight. 2. The weather. It was cloudy and misty. Perfect.
Stephen still tells people I’m a cheater for shipping my bag but what he doesn’t tell them, is my bag moving in that motorized vehicle hauled his toiletry bag and raincoat. Ha! He says those minor details don’t count as cheating. I’ve never met anyone like him. Geez.
Today we said goodbye to Cecil. Sad face. He hiked with us to the town we are staying in tonight, Abadin, but he didn’t stay. He had previously left his motorbike here so he can ride it to Burgos (a fantastic city with a beautiful cathedral) for a few days and then back to Barcelona. It’s the first time I’ve ever said goodbye to a pilgrim who rode off on a motorcycle from the Camino. Ha! He said he will finish his Camino in September but for now he has some personal stuff to take care of. We were only with him for a couple of days but I really enjoyed his company. He had great energy. He ordered and paid for my breakfast this morning. What a guy. Also, he wears a ton of cologne. I’m going to miss strategically walking downwind of him. I don’t think I mentioned it before but this is his second Camino. His first one was in 2018, like me. He walked the Frances in May and I walked it in July.
I met two German women today with an incredible story. Gabi & Katherine (not sure of the spelling) met 5 years ago near San Sebastián when they were both hiking the first section of this trail. They both live in Munich and became friends – best friends. They said they only have time to hike in 10-12 day increments because of family and work so it’s taken them a few years to complete because of the Covid gap. But this year they will reach Santiago together. The wild part of this story is, they realized last night when counting out the days to Santiago that they will reach it exactly on the 5th anniversary of the day they met. Gabi had a tear in her eye when she told me the story and I got goosebumps. That’s a great story.
We walked by…and stopped at this interesting Albergue in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. They had a tarot gum ball machine that made me laugh and of course I had to play along. Carmen, the woman who owned the place was lovely. She is a painter and very supportive of the pilgrims and the Camino. She even made me a tea with herbs used from her garden…including stinging nettles. After we chatted with her for awhile, Stephen and I started to walk again. Stephen was ahead of me by about 150 meters and as he rounded the bend, he shouted hello to someone in a field down below the road. Then he looked back at me and said, “you are never going to believe who is in the garden.” I had no idea who he was talking about so when I got to the clearing in the trees I looked down and saw Constantine and his dog Lylou! I called Lylou’s name and she came running through the field so I circled back to go meet her near the hostel. We had the best reunion! Oh I love this dog. She just melts my heart. Constantine said she never does that with people and he could see we have a real connection. ❤️🐾 Awe! Constantine gave Stephen and I a hug and a kiss on both cheeks, the French way. It was good to see him and Lylou again. Stephen almost cried when they hugged..I think he even held the hug a second or two longer than normal. It was really sweet. Camino people have such an impact on your life. It’s really incredible. When we went to leave Lylou stood in front of my legs as if to block me from leaving. I hated to say goodbye but hopefully we will see them again in Santiago.
The fruits & veggies are on steroids over here…or maybe it’s extra TLC. The kale is ginormous!
We walked passed a forest specifically grown for paper. The row of trees looked perfect from afar.
Hyekyung ate her leftover Pulpo (octopus) & potatoes from last night for breakfast. She is a wild one.
We saw a sculpture of a giant lamp…I rubbed it hoping a Genie would pop out and solve all my problems.
We tried a local dish called Tarta de Mondoñedo. “A sweet puff pastry pie, Mondoñedo cake is only found in the town of Mondoñedo. The pie is stuffed with two layers; ground almonds on top of a stuffing made from candied spaghetti squash or pumpkin.” It taste like figs and apricots to me. It was a beautiful pie.
Squint (my bestie) is in Hawaii. She sent me a photo of the shoes she and her hubby took to their fancy resort. She is there for seven days and brought SEVEN pairs of shoes (and SIX swimsuits, what?)…her hubs took six. They were made for each other – sole mates as she says. I told her she could never cut it on the Camino unless she had a Sherpa. This photo montage perfectly describes our friendship. She does something totally opposite of what I would do so I send her silly memes about her ridiculousness.
Lourenzá – Abadin – 27.2km
Goodnight and much love from Spain.
