Nadir

I woke at 1am after 3 hours of sleep. I don’t know if it was the pain in my feet, my apprehension of walking on said feet or generalised anxiety. I was too hot and then too cold. Then resigned. I read for a few hours until dawn.

I didn’t want to eat our spartan breakfast and was in a terrible frame of mind. All I could think of was a walking stage of constant ascents and hills with no flat stretches and doing it again and again.

My bag felt too heavy and my shoulders were sore. Walking out into the grey in my socks and sandals combo and getting immediately lost trying to escape Mondoñedo I contemplated catching a bus and being done with it all.

Once on the path out of town it immediately climbs from the valley to overlook the cathedral. While being distracted by goats and lambs I turned back to see the town nestled in the lush green folds of the valley and realised that I hadn’t thought of my feet yet.

This miracle continued (mostly) for the first 10 km of the day, leading us up and along the valley, just off the peak protected from the wind.

I knew that the kick up on to the Lugo plateau would be challenging so I forced myself to stop and have a proper breakfast enjoying the views back to where we had come from.  But even this very steep section (~250m in less than 1km) was doable.

I arrived in Abadín well before 1 and we had time to change and rest before our menu del día. The menu was 90% protein which I can tell that my body needs and now at 5pm I’m just waiting for my laundry to finish so that I can go to bed and to sleep for hopefully at least 10 dreamless hours before we start again.

I had lofty dreams when starting this that maybe I’d remember how to write again but it appears that foot pain and tiredness have completely anaesthetised that part of my brain.

22408 steps (until I took my watch off to charge)

17.1 km

Total: 101.2 km