Camino Pilgrim

The day starts off rougher than any before. My right foot had barely any motion at the ankle. This made me limp very heavily and my movement speed was not that great either. Still, I went out the door of the albergue and followed the path I had explained to several pilgrims before.

After limp-walking a few hundred meters, I realized that this was not the path I wanted to have for myself. I had planned to take the long ocean route through the countryside. I felt so bad with the heavy limp, that I decided maybe it was better to use a bit of the highway shortcut, because most likely a big car road has less elevation change than a natural route.

Going along the highway out of Liendo early in the morning was not as bad as I thought. There were barely any cars on the road at all. Since the journey was so mind numbingly boring, my mind started brainstorming about the sudden limp this morning. I did a bit of ankle mobility and stretching exercise yesterday, after all.

I used the highway guardrails to do hamstring and calf stretches and also assisted squat holds. I gained a bit of motion back in the ankle from this. So I realized that the issue is not just the ankle itself, but all kinds of large and small muscles in the leg. I did what my physiotherapist had taught me and used the head of the hiking stick as a blunt instrument to hit large leg muscles with. The sudden shock releases some tension from the muscles. Whenever I felt a muscle area tense on the foot, I gave it a good strike or two.

Within a minute, I was able to walk normally again. At first, the leg felt extremely weak and fragile, but within ten minutes, I also had my strength back. I actually felt better now than the previous day or two when starting off.

Getting to Laredo on the highway was boring itself. Laredo was not much better. It seemed like a tiny old village with a large modern city built around it because of a big beautiful gold sandy beach in the area. It was not as nice as some of the places I had passed in the past.

The beach in Laredo was my favorite part. The sand near the ocean was at such a flat level that you could walk on a vast area of wet sand. I walked this way all the way to the top of the peninsula and caught a boat-ride right off the beach into the neighbouring town of Santoña. That town was not much better so I just kept walking.

Outside of Santoña, it started to get much better. I had a nice lunch near Berria beach and from the end of the beach an old hiking trail on the Norte started. It was an extremely steep climb on rocks and beach sand. This route seemed deadly in rainy weather. I had a perfect sunny day and crossing the hill towards Noja went quite smoothly.

There was another nice long beach walk of several kilometers waiting for me. Because it was a Sunday, there were a lot of locals around. Walking barefoot across the sand.

Noja seemed to have very recently built apartment buildings only. Everything was so nice and fancy. It was difficult to spot old historical buildings. The walk towards Isla at first went through the suburbs of Noja and I felt just like hiking in a big city (a bit out of place).

Then, soon enough, the trail went more towards nature. Eagles were flying around only a few meters above me. It was a sight to see. I hope they were hunting for those extra poisonous snakes I saw on an educational board nearby.

Arriving in Isla, it had already started to feel rough again. My speed had dropped and it felt very hot in the sunlight. I assume I was just starting to get really tired. Still, the day went much faster than yesterday.

Isla village seems very historic and beautiful. I am staying the night right next to an old church. They have a separate building in the courtyard to host pilgrims. The albergue here has bunkbeds with three levels. I really would not like to fall from the top here. Thankfully, I got here so early that I got a pretty much standalone bed. Just in case, I did almost an hour of different stretches to make tomorrow as smooth as possible.