Camino Pilgrim

That night I had serious issues sleeping. Three guys were snoring like tractors so loud that around 1am the other twenty people in the room couldn’t sleep at all. Even those with earplugs were not safe from the tractors.

Overall, the morning started really nice with hot drinks for free in the dining area. After thunder and rain had calmed down, the road down the mountain was still very dangerous and slippery. I almost fell and would have seriously injured my ankle. It was nice to see small fog clouds hugging the mountains and the town of Ponferrada while descending. It took close to three hours to reach stable ground.

Ponferrada itself looked really good. There was a castle just like the ones from fairytales greeting your entrance to the old town. Streets were made to look touristic. With the Japanese guys, we found a hidden snack and drink bar where all the locals went. With every beverage, you have a free sandwich to choose from around 10 options. Itsuki and Naoki decided to have a shorter day today and went wild trying pretty much everything they had in the sandwich section.

I decided to move at least a little further if not a lot. The road continued through shady villages and neighborhoods. Nevertheless, I had so much fun that I barely noticed covering the original 32km planned for today.

I had a little foot break and decided to push forward and catch Jasmine and Veronika. They had really been pushing far these last few days. Funny thing is that in the next days they plan to take smaller distances, so it might happen that I will go past them.

Walking 40km is already very tiring. Especially since the last five or six kilometers was on gravel roads with a ton of hills and an extremely shady village which looked a little like the start of a horror movie. I managed to end the day without any blisters or other injuries. A few hours after finishing, I felt like I could do much more. Maybe one day I will push my limits to see how far I can go, but currently I really like keeping myself injury free. Just enjoy the journey, even on hard days.