I’m part of a little band of pilgrims now, with Daniel and Juliane from Germany, Shenja from Russia, Cairon from Ireland, Kim from Switzerland, and a few others from Spain, Latvia, and Slovakia. We overindulged in drink last night after our lovely communal pilgrim meal, ending up sitting along a fence in a public garden watching the sun set.
I suffered a bit this morning from last night’s drink while climbing hills for the first hour. But then my head cleared and my hiking stride was strong. Once again, I was blessed with views from the hills of the valley covered in cloud. On one descent, I stopped for a coffee at a small place not marked on my map and thought, “I am literally having my coffee inside a cloud.”
There were a couple of killer hills today that left me wondering once again if the Spanish trail designers have ever heard of switchbacks. Perhaps the hills wouldn’t have been so difficult if it wasn’t for the heat. It’s been a scorcher today. Not that I’m complaining, of course, especially after having spent 19 straight days walking in the rain and cold. It’s just that the sun can sap one’s energy.
This is the first day in a long time where we had multiple opportunities to stop for coffee along the Way. Some days, we would have one opportunity at best, but today it seemed that nearly every village had a cafe or bar open.
I caught up with a Canadian couple, Joanne and Wayne, from Kamloops, and a German fellow, Rudy, who I had met a few days ago. We walked the last kilometer or so into Cadavo Baliera, where we booked into a new, clean albergue, hosted by the charming Mare, who brought us a plate of cherries she had just picked and washed. What a nice treat!
I cooked my own supper for a change and chatted with a young couple from Russia, who had come to the Camino to escape the insanity in Moscow because of the World Cup. They informed me that Canada has now fully legalized marijuana, which they had learned from the Russian news network.