El Camino de Santiago – What the Hurry is all About

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When I finally did get up on the morning of day 5, Kathrin was already gone. I had some difficulty finding the way when I left the albergue and the darkness didn’t help. Thankfully the guide book described how to get out of town (go past the Lidl). Along the way I met two American hikers who were primary school English teachers in Madrid (from Chicago and Florida). We chatted for a while about life abroad, but when we reached Mos, I stopped to eat breakfast and they traveled on.

The 16 km to Redondela passed incredibly quickly. When I arrived in the city at 11am, I saw Kathrin waiting for the albergue to open, which was at 1pm. I said I planned to go at least the next 7 kilometers to Arcade. She decided to come along too since it was still so early. Perhaps I was now in a zone, but we reached Arcade in no time. We stopped by a café to get stamps in our Pilgrim Passports (which are necessary for proving to the albergues that you’re a pilgrim and actually walking). It was owned by the nicest Spanish guy who shared his birthday cake with us.

Although it had already been 23 km, I was feeling great and it was still early on in the day. I suggested to Kathrin that we try and complete the 11 km to Pontevedra. She agreed, so we hiked onward together and were pleasantly surprised to spend most of the day in the woods – a most welcome change from our walk yesterday. I was thoroughly enjoying the trail and felt like my body was getting used to the long distances.

But all good things must come to an end. Just three kilometers before arriving in Pontevedre, we found ourselves not feeling as wonderfully as we had in Arcade. 30+ kilometers is quite a lot in a day, regardless of having done it for almost a week already. We saw a sign for a shop and stopped to get some ice cream. Moving onward trudging through the suburbs, it felt like we’d never get to the hostel. When we finally made it, the ladies at reception (who only spoke Spanish) told us that it was already full. Now I realized what the rush had been for in the morning. I attempted to understand what the ladies were telling us, repeating everything back to them in whatever Spanish I could manage. They told us we were allowed to use the showers and all other facilities there. Then, any time after 5:30 pm we could go to a school on the other side of the old town and sleep in the gymnasium (for this alternate accommodation we paid 4 euros each instead of 6).

Fresh and ready to go, we headed back out onto the trail, traveling through the “historic” part of town and then detouring once we reached the river in order to head towards the school. We found an open gate and went through, but then had the problem of figuring out which building on the property would be where we were sleeping. Luckily, there were some people coming through another gate who looked like they knew where they were going. Inside, I thought the old, dusty gym didn’t seem like it was used for sports anymore. We each grabbed a mattress from one of the stacks by the entrance and dragged it to the other side of the floor near a table with a bench where we could lay out our towels and clothes to dry.

The last paragraph of my journal entry on this day reads: “heat rash almost gone. today was easier. more time in the shade. the last 3 km are always the worst. ~66 km to Santiago. I will do it in 3 days with 10 or so on the last day. I hope there are no bed bugs in the mattress”