Camino Pilgrim

New personal record in daily distance. Old one was from 2019 on my last day of the Portuguese walk into Santiago. Now felt confident enough to do such a long day and be perfectly fine to continue tomorrow.

Big risks can lead to big rewards. Air temperature this morning dropped to freezing. Felt temperature was even lower at -3°C. Luckily it was forecasted a sunny day so no snowfall.

I went to sleep extra early and woke up much earlier than expected. Did some last minute route planning decisions at 3am and half an hour later already went outside. The first plan was to see if the Camino trail is dry enough to quickly switch to the N-630 highway and keep my feet dry. Alternative was to walk back and start highway walking from the village. Last measure in case of failure was to go back to the albergue and continue sleeping.

The trail was good for 3km leading up to the highway, but at the last moment some water obstacles appeared. Had to use my hands covered with hiking socks to hold onto barbed wire while walking through the bush avoiding water. A few more steps and I was on the old familiar highway. The road was completely dry and for the next four hours I saw only a handful of cars.

It was so cold that at some point I had to put on absolutely all my clothes except the backup underwear. I was even using my heavy merino wool stockings as very big gloves to keep warm. Once I did my last minute clothes change in the middle of the might on a highway, I felt perfectly cozy and warm. Had no issues doing 20km on hard surface without stopping before the sun came up.

The first and second villages were a big disappointment today. No open bars to go in and rest legs a bit. I must have walked about 36 kilometers until I decided to try one more village that was off the Camino trail. San Marcial village had a bar right near the Camino trail. It did not add any extra distance and I even saw other pilgrims there.

My favorite moment of the day was a few kilometers after the bar in San Marcial. There was a Camino bench for pilgrims placed on a hill overlooking Zamora. I was so happy, I just had to take a picture even with this foggy camera. I spent maybe half an hour there just laying down in the sun and enjoying the day.

Last few kilometers into Zamora were muddy. I had already been used to all the high quality Camino trail that I had since sunrise. Still it had big open fields on both sides and any issues could be easily solved. Once again the trail led almost into the old town itself before having to walk on hard surfaces.

The day after tomorrow I will need to know which Camino trail will I use to reach Santiago. Via de la Plata trail itself ends in Astorga and then you switch to Camino Frances. The other option would be just 40km north of Zamora to turn west and switch to Camino Sanabres. Until this morning I was sure I wanted to try and see a new trail. Now after the long walk in darkness I am leaning towards old familiar trails where a bed and warm food are always nearby.