The Last 100 Kilometers

We have fallen into a relatively easy routine for out last few days of walking.  We try to be on the road walking by 7am.  This means that Dad is up at 5:45 to gather his things, tape up various parts of his body, and do whatever it is that he does in the morning.  Mom is up at 6 to do her morning ablutions, she packs the night before.  I roll out of bed at 6:15 and get ready and we go to grab a cup of coffee and toast about 6:30.

Once we're walking we break every couple of hours or so to rest our feet.  This usually also involves a cup of coffee and a snack of some kind. You would be amazed at how hungry you get when you are walking for several hours straight.  We try to be done walking by 12:30 or 1:30.

The rest of the day is much more relaxed.  We shower, eat our big meal for lunch, take a siesta, then poke around the town and doing any shopping for supplies.  Then a light dinner, and to bed, usually by 10 (and before dark) to do it all again the next day.  It is frankly a great schedule, especially when you don't have to cook or clean, and hand laundry is the extent of your chores.

Today we covered the 12 miles in five hours flat, including stops.  This was great time for us, I'm guessing because it rained fairly heavily on us most of the way, thus motivating our rapid progress.  The town we stayed in last night was "completo" - every bed in town was spoken for.  Today we are in a much larger place, a town called Portomarín with nearly 2,000 people, and judging by the difficulty we had in getting a reservation and the number of pilgrims we've seen lounging around the town, it too is probably completo.  My guess is that since we are in the final push to Santiago, and we are in July, the Camino will be more crowded from here on out.  I must admit, this makes me a bit sad, as I have enjoyed the solitude and peace of walking, though it is always nice to run in to an old Camino friend.

I am not sure I have ever prayed as hard as I did on the last half-mile of our walk today.  Portomarín is perched on a hillside (a shocker, I know), and you must cross a reservoir to get there.  The bridge is the last half mile across the reservoir, which at the moment is mostly empty.  This means I had to walk across the very narrow catwalk on a bridge 200 feet up in the air for a half-mile with nothing but a very thin rail keeping me about 18 inches from a very long drop.  Did I mention I get vertigo?  So, suffice to say I got my daily prayer quota.

Tomorrow we have another climb, bit I hope the weather will be better.  Given that it is 55 degrees and raining in July, I think I will rule out Galicia for a vacation home location.