The battery of my watch died tonight so there was no alarm for me this morning. I looked outside and thought to myself it is already pretty bright out there… The next time I woke up I finally checked my watch to see that it was dead. When I turned my phone on it was already 7.30h 😳
We’ll I guess my body was ok
with it after yesterday. But then a drop hit me right into the face. How did that happen I was still in the tent. When I touched the walls they were soaking wet. There must have been so much condensation last night that it soaked everything. Puuhh, a wet start. Wet shirt, wet shorts, wet socks & shoes…🙈
But hey, what did Christian always say: “It’s not for chickens!”
I finally left at 7.45h for an easy stroll into town. Only annoying thing with getting closer to town is that there are many unmarked trails and farm tracks which make navigation very time consuming.
In town the fas station was also the supermarket with a decent selection. I had a coffee, a coke and a croissant and sorted out the maps for the next section. I stacked up a fee supplies but I almost still
had enough for the upcoming 100km. Bad planning.
First stretch was up a long 600m climb again in the brutal sun being watched by the very few cows here.
Only to drop down quite a bit and then guess what…? Of course.
And then there was a long stretch on a tarmac road. I do have two issues with tarmac roads:
1) I can feel it in my knees and ankles at the end of the day
2) It’s eating up my shoe-soles
So I tried to avoid the road as good as possible.
I could feel that I was not as juicy as yesterday anymore but on the other hand also not sore. So a good result considering yesterdays run. But the climb and the sun did not help at all. At one point I was completely soaked from sweat. My shirt and paints were dripping. And then I came to the next water source. A fountain which had a lot of pressure on the pipe. So I just took of my shirt, shorts and socks in the middle of the road washing my stuff and also taking a quick shower myself. Luckily the first car only came 10 minutes after I was dressed again. Probably a funny picture – a naked guy in the woods taking a shower at a fountain 🤣
I actually met a couple of people along the way which were doing the same thing. There seem to be more people out there than expected!
But when I did my lunch break later and pitched my tent to dry it close to a church it got really crowded. Many heavy and super light hiker with bright clothes came down a hill towards me laughing, screaming and chatting. I soon found out why:
I intersected the Camino! All people on their journey to Santiago de Compostella. I must admit I was glad when the trails split again on an intersection.
And then I did get the first glimpse on to what I was so excited about – the high stuff…
Then I bumped into Gareth from Wales and we continued for the rest of the day together chatting about life and hiking.
Finding a campspot turned out to be a challenge. At the end we had to walk and walk until we went down to a creek crossing where there was a half-decent flat spot. And again like yesterday right around sunset the horseflies came out again biting chunks out of our skin. And the crazy thing about them is even if you smack them and you get them they just fly off afterwards and come back
right away. For some of them I needed three goes to finally knock them out. And what a painful and itchy bite! Ate in rain gear tonight.
