Scores on the doors 26.5 km Up 584m down 342m
The road has started to get busy again as it was at Le Puy and at St Jean Pied de Port/Roncesvalles. There are a number of distinct types of pilgrim, firstly those who like us have been on the road for a while and carry our own gear, we tend to recognize each other and will wave, smile and pass the time of day as we pass and repass each other. The next group are also the semi-long distance walkers, but these are the ones who use bag carrying services, not quite as authentic.
Then come the bicigrims again two types, the proper pilgrim on good old fashioned road bikes laden down with panniers following the road at a steady pace and the others in Lycra, on high tec mountain bikes with disc brakes, carrying only water and going hell for leather down the pedestrian paths, and appear to be on the way purely for a great bike ride.
All these types of pilgrim have been with us all the way, but now we are on the home straight we have new types of pilgrim as well, these are the minimum distance brigade. Cyclists who have to go 200km and walkers who have to go 100km. Many of them only carry day pacs and seem to travel arround in packs. They are now at the blister stage and are begining to suffer a bit. There are also a number of the long distance brigade who have injuries mainly to knees who are gamely going on with grim determination. I myself have been getting a few twinges in the Left knee but nothing which will stop me at this stage.
Last of all are the sudo-pilgrims, who arrive at a section of the path in a bright yellow luxury airconditioned mini-bus. They walk for pehaps 1/2 an hour, take lots of photos, and then remount their bus to a cafe for a snack or lunch before another walk on a different part of the way. Sadly I am convinced they think they are getting an authentic experience of the Camino, but it can only be truly expierenced over at least a couple of weeks.
Having got this off my chest, I will get on with today's walk. We stayed last night in the Albergue Manuel, where for 5€ extra we had our own room with sheets and towels. After another good night's sleep only disturbed by howling dogs at 4am, we set out at about 7:35, it was still dark, but the sun was begining to rise, as we walked past the bus station we saw two women who had been in our accommodation getting onto a bus with their rucksacks (not that we are suspicious). On leaving town we climbed up into woodland and gently rose for the next couple of hours, playing tag with main road.
After two hours we stopped at the village of Gonzar for breakfast , so many pilgrims had gone before us that all the toast was gone, so we had to make do with pan-O-chocolate with our coffee. As we ate we spoke with couple from Holand who we had seen on and off since Villafranca, they are carrying a knitted toy who apparently comes from Amsterdam Zoo and goes on holiday with people and has his picture posted to a social network site. We were also joined by the tallest German man we have ever seen (must be at least 6ft 6 & as thin as a rake), who with his wife started at Roncesvalles and like his technology, high tec pedometers and GPS's.
Refreshed we plodded on passing a special store for sweetcorn or potatoes that feature in this area
this particular one we have carried a picture of (on the front cover of one of our guides) since we first came into Spain).
A couple of hours on we stopped for Cokes and coffee, (a cold can of coke is great for cooling overheated feet!). Shortly after we passed another significant marker post - km 71 (takeing into account the Galician optimism about distance) why? you might ask, well 80 km is of course 50 miles.
With a short stop for lunch we arrived in Palas de Rei (palace of the King) although no palace exists now. Only another 73.1km or 45.68 miles to go!!!!!!!
The road has started to get busy again as it was at Le Puy and at St Jean Pied de Port/Roncesvalles. There are a number of distinct types of pilgrim, firstly those who like us have been on the road for a while and carry our own gear, we tend to recognize each other and will wave, smile and pass the time of day as we pass and repass each other. The next group are also the semi-long distance walkers, but these are the ones who use bag carrying services, not quite as authentic.
Then come the bicigrims again two types, the proper pilgrim on good old fashioned road bikes laden down with panniers following the road at a steady pace and the others in Lycra, on high tec mountain bikes with disc brakes, carrying only water and going hell for leather down the pedestrian paths, and appear to be on the way purely for a great bike ride.
All these types of pilgrim have been with us all the way, but now we are on the home straight we have new types of pilgrim as well, these are the minimum distance brigade. Cyclists who have to go 200km and walkers who have to go 100km. Many of them only carry day pacs and seem to travel arround in packs. They are now at the blister stage and are begining to suffer a bit. There are also a number of the long distance brigade who have injuries mainly to knees who are gamely going on with grim determination. I myself have been getting a few twinges in the Left knee but nothing which will stop me at this stage.
Last of all are the sudo-pilgrims, who arrive at a section of the path in a bright yellow luxury airconditioned mini-bus. They walk for pehaps 1/2 an hour, take lots of photos, and then remount their bus to a cafe for a snack or lunch before another walk on a different part of the way. Sadly I am convinced they think they are getting an authentic experience of the Camino, but it can only be truly expierenced over at least a couple of weeks.
Having got this off my chest, I will get on with today's walk. We stayed last night in the Albergue Manuel, where for 5€ extra we had our own room with sheets and towels. After another good night's sleep only disturbed by howling dogs at 4am, we set out at about 7:35, it was still dark, but the sun was begining to rise, as we walked past the bus station we saw two women who had been in our accommodation getting onto a bus with their rucksacks (not that we are suspicious). On leaving town we climbed up into woodland and gently rose for the next couple of hours, playing tag with main road.
After two hours we stopped at the village of Gonzar for breakfast , so many pilgrims had gone before us that all the toast was gone, so we had to make do with pan-O-chocolate with our coffee. As we ate we spoke with couple from Holand who we had seen on and off since Villafranca, they are carrying a knitted toy who apparently comes from Amsterdam Zoo and goes on holiday with people and has his picture posted to a social network site. We were also joined by the tallest German man we have ever seen (must be at least 6ft 6 & as thin as a rake), who with his wife started at Roncesvalles and like his technology, high tec pedometers and GPS's.
Refreshed we plodded on passing a special store for sweetcorn or potatoes that feature in this area
A couple of hours on we stopped for Cokes and coffee, (a cold can of coke is great for cooling overheated feet!). Shortly after we passed another significant marker post - km 71 (takeing into account the Galician optimism about distance) why? you might ask, well 80 km is of course 50 miles.
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