PERUSCALLO thru PORTOMARIN to GONZAR — 14 Miles

It was 7:30am when Dick dropped me off in Peruscallo, right in front of a mud puddle!  This was where I had finished my trek yesterday and where I would begin again today.  The air was cool and overcast and I was the only trekker around.  My foot was still hurting, especially when I first started walking but I was waiting for the Camino Candy (Ibuprofen) to kick in.The path was absolutely beautiful but because of the fog I couldn’t see very far ahead.  And the water and mud?  They were a constant on today’s journey.

 

The path was easy and level in spots but went uphill and downhill in many others.

After about 2 miles (which felt like 5) I stopped at a little Bar for my first Cafe con Leche of the day.  Shortly after I arrived, 2 other trekkers came in.  They were the first I had seen today.

I was intrigued as I came upon the back of this little church so I pushed open a gate and went in to explore the grounds.  As with so many of these little villages the church and the cemetery were as one.

Although I was alone I never felt it as I passed from one small village to the next.

They were quiet little places and I rarely saw a local or heard the moo of a cow.

Although I smelled cows and cow dung in many places on the path, these were the only 2 cows I saw all day.

This stretch of mud and water went on for at least 2 city blocks.  The only place to walk was on the rocks to the left and that was not an easy thing to do.  As I was rock hopping and hoping not to fall I could hear another trekker approaching closely behind me.  There was no place I could let her pass me so I tried to go as quickly as possible without falling.

The mud quickly disappeared and it was back into beautiful scenery.

In my opinion I thought this mornings walk was absolutely spectacular.

Now I just had to cross the bridge to get to Portomarin.

Arriving in the Central Square

I had walked 9 miles and was going into the central square of Portomarin when I saw Dick getting out of his car.   He had just returned from trying to find us  a hotel room for tomorrow and here’s what he encountered.

He had gone to 6 Hostels, Hotels and Albergues and on the 7th try finally found one with a vacancy for tomorrow.  This was awful.  This place was being overrun and sold out with new trekkers wanting to walk that last 100 kilometers to Santiago.  I don’t know what they were doing on the bus but Dick said the bus let them off and they all headed for the Camino Trail.

We sat down to have some coffee and started talking to 2 trekkers from Denmark.  One of them was headed home because of a pulled muscle.  The other one had done the wak this morning and said she didn’t like it at all.  She said there was way too much uphill. For once, it hadn’t even bothered me and in fact, I thought today’s walk was stunning.

Even though we were staying here in Portomarin for the night I decided I wanted to walk about 5 miles farther which would shave some time off of tomorrow’s walk.  After a banana and some fresh squeezed orange juice I took off again.

This time the path wasn’t so pretty and it was almost all uphill and bordered the highway.  I ran into plenty of other trekkers but not hoards of them like Dick had seen.

The path did have some pretty parts but by the time I had walked another 5 miles I was ready to meet Dick.  He was waiting for me in the first little car behind the donkey!

He drove me back to Portomarin to our nice sized hotel room where I could shower, wash my hair and feel like a real person again.

And besides the lovely trek, here’s the most wonderful thing about today — I bought myself a hair dryer!  Whoopie!!!!