Day 7 - A long "mental" day

Portomarin to Palas de Rei - Didn't sleep well for some reason last night. At 4 am, I kept thinking "what will the day be like with about six hours sleep". The answer - a bit tough. Hike was 16.84 miles and I kept asking Mark if we were there yet? We must have looked like we were dragging because as we were getting close some kid on a bike yelled just three more kilometers. I felt just like this statue by the time we arrived.

We jokingly said that we survived the Bate's Motel last night. Look at the size of this place and it had a grand total of 4 guests. Us and one other couple.

These are a few pictures of Portomarin. The city has a public swimming pool, overlooking the lake and a really neat town center and church. I think this is a little resort community. The way to Santiago was shown to us by St.James himself and I had to join in. The Camino was not very nice to its pilgrim's leaving town. A huge set of stairs down and a wicked climb out of the valley.

I really need to figure out these trees!

There really isn't much to comment about today. We did get to stop several times for a coffee, beer and restroom breaks. Much more is open on this portion of the Camino. We met several new pilgrims and most of the hike was on trails with not much to see. Thus the "mental" part. Mark kept me in good spirits but the long walk just about got the better of me.

We did come across the tiny church that was not in a town. It looked like it was there to serve the few houses around it, maybe even one family.

Next, we passed the Pilgrims Cementary for those that didn't survive the trip to Santiago. Notice the rocks left by travelers at the base of the monument.

Karen Adams (laundry queen) check out this outside tub and washboard that we came across for travelers to use. HA! We saw about 3 of these along the trail today.

However, the highlight of the day for me had to be dinner. A real American burger. It was a little slice of heaven!!!

We have three days hiking left before we spend some time as tourists. Tomorrow will be another challenging hike. We will go a little over18 miles on our way to Arzua. Our longest hike of the trip and we will try to leave out early to make it a slow and steady journey.

The weather was a little wet for the last half of the day. A light rain and some wind. Tomorrow they are skipping right over the light rain and calling for rain. Could get a little wet out there. Should make for an interesting day. The forecast looks like it will improve after that so we should have a good last couple of days walking and a sunny day to tour Santiago. Buen Camino!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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