El Camino

Beautiful shining sun, windless weather. More then 50 km. Only pictures and videos today.

This day compared with the others was a short walk.

I slept very bad. My legs, mainly my sole, were aching until morning, indicating me the result of the 50 km. I started late and tired.

Astorga is the most beautiful place for me so far. The day started with a short sight seeing, where I was suprised to meet two polish pilgrims, with whom I met before. How can they be here when I am doing this much of distance daily? They also looked suprised to see me there.

After Astorga a wonderful little chapel got into my way. An old men was guarding it, at the entrance old photos were on the wall. The atmosphere touched me , i spent some time there.

It was a slope day today the path brought me to 1500 m high. it was strange that I didn’t felt it. I chose to cover a short distance, because the accomodation would have been uncertain (regarding the number of free spaces), on the other hand the pilgrim has other things to do not just to walk. Because of the kilometers covered in the past days I didn’t always have time and strenghts to wash, so it was time (or rather pressing) for a washing day.

At dinner I met my polish friends again. They invited me to their table and we talked. One of them is 27 years old, his uncle is 43. It turned out that they have the same amount of time available like and they are doing it harder. Their daily record is 60 km. We had a great conversation, I gave them the address of my blog, looking forward to their comments.

I started in time today and the sunrise was beautiful in the mountains. After about 10 km of walk in a forest path set cherries were sold. That is what I had for breakfast.

The road down was much harder because the ground was full of stones. It really weared out my legs and in these cases the danger of injury is also increased so it is higly advised to be careful. One thing is for sure running shoes are not for this type of land.

When I was walking on the highway in the heat, near the road I noticed a pub (there is a photo of it below). There was nobody there , but since the gate was open, I went inside. I was almost at the entrance when a big German Shepherd Dog charged at me. I couldn’t do anything else, but to hold my walking stick in front of me and began to retreat. The dog’s owner didn’t hurry to arrive and he started to call the dog, but the dog didn’t seem to react. He kept showing me to put down the stick, but i was thinking not to because this big dog was in front of me only 1,5m away from me. When I retreated back almost to the path, finally Rex went back to his owner, because the dog’s name was Rex. Together with big apologises he invited me to a soda, though they were closed. Exceptionally he spoke english, so we had a little chat.

I got slower during the afternoon. I have found a pleasent garden, where the internet was fast. I upload yesterday’s pictures and booked accomodation in Compostela. One hour passed in a moment and I had a lot left to walk.

I couldn’t complain about the weather. I don’t know if it can be seen on the pictures but it was 37 degrees.