What a wonderful day! I could walk again! And there was hope we could still make Santiago together.

The fisio yesterday obviously helped but I woke early and also stretched and exercised for about an hour. I used my mini tens and rolled on the spikey ball. It’s hard to explain how stiff one gets after a few long days. (Well 35 long days) Thank heavens for the $2 Aldi spikey ball and the mini tens.

I left on my own in the dark with my head lamp to see how far I could get before the pain kicked in again. I didnt want to annoy my beloved and make him get up early if I was only going to make a couple of hundred metres down the road.

As it turns out I was on fire although i slowed at times because it was hard to see the arrows. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do to pain. I would see two eyes glowing for a while before confirming they belonged to any number of cats. Some of the stretches were pitch black and at one point a man parked a car in a side street, turned the lights off and just stayed there – a bit creepy! I wasn’t really alone though because I realised if I stood still for a minute or two, inevitably another couple of pilgrims would emerge from the mist and the dark. Actually a couple of pain relieving tablets from the English Medicine Woman and Doctor Lovelace also helped. I made 8kms in 2 hours before I sat for first breakfast and a long break. My beloved arrived in time to share the first breakfast. He had called a little while earlier as he couldn’t believe he hadn’t caught up with me.

The next thing we knew, the Rose amongst thorns, The Choirmaster, the Medicine Woman and Dr Lovelace all piled in for a break too. I also noticed the Spanish man with the biggest hiking pole on the camino and we met a couple of English women who had missed a flight and decided they needed to bus it from Pamplona Sarria (about 600kms).

I sat for about an hour and felt recovered enough to continue on. Before leaving we chatted to the owner and finally found out what the strange green things were that we saw growing everywhere. Galician green leafy vegetables for soup.

The day wasn’t going to be too long heading to Portomarin but the bonus today was our good friend known in 2015 as the Super hiker was meeting us there and was going to spend the night and walk for a while with us the next day. She was worried she might slow us down due to some changes the body experiences when with child but on past experience that was highly unlikely. Even in peak condition I was slow compared to most!

Anyway it ended up a lovely day without too many ups or downs and just as we were coming up to the bridge over the dam into Portomarin she surprised us and walked towards us and our new camino friends. It was one of the best moments of our Camino!

We had booked a 3 bed room in a new albergue and enjoyed some tapas and beverages across the road with the Doctor we had been meeting all the way since back when the Sommelier still roamed the Meseta and we had been restaurant hopping at Fromista.

While the waiter was taking a photo of the group I took a photo of the waiter. Sorry! You’ll never know who was actually there now will you?

I attended one of the least impressive fisio appointments I’d ever had in order to stay mobile enough to finish the last 80 kms or so. I was plugged into a tens machine, given a brief massage and a stretch or two then thrown out the door. Better than nothing but … oh well. I limped back to the albergue and remained downstairs until after dinner.

Whilst waiting for the fisio an Englishman with a very annoying voice came in to the surgery and tried to help interpret from polish or something unfamiliar to me to Spanish to English. He couldn’t speak Polish or Spanish. She couldn’t speak Spanish or English. The fisio could only Speak Spanish. I was exhausted listening.

After the appointment we visited the church. My beloved looked a bit uncomfortable but at least he came in for a change. We then went down for some pizza at the other end of town and there the Englishman was again explaining the virtues of a life without alcohol to a young German girl. I’d seen him everywhere over the last few days so I decided he was clearly the man who is anywhere anytime.

We ate our pizza, I had an alcoholic beverage and we went home to our albergue ready for a nice sleep. We were getting very close now and I was hoping the body could hold up for the last 80kms and a Saturday arrival.

Buen Camino.