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Day 25- La Faba to Triasecasa, 30km, 10 long hours.
Id rather forget today. End diary entry.
But for the sake of me being able to remember this day later in life ill write about it but Im sure i wont ever forget it.
Alarm at 6:15am, on the path at 6:30am. The 3 of us head out into the mountainside in the pitch black with our torches. The first 5km were straight up hill!. Not a nice formed path either, rocky and carved into the hill alongside farming land, mostly grazing. We stopped in a clearing turned off our torches and just looked at the stars. You could see the milky way so clearly – well we were in the middle of now where, no lights. Then you release, its just the 3 of you somewhere in spain, no one knows where you are, anything could happen.
The sun comes up as we reach the top and it was beautiful looking back over the fields and valleys. Soft mist in the valleys, it was bitterly cold (easily zero degrees if that) and 5km straight up had me sweating.
Thats where the fun ends today. What happens… S*** happens. I knew my stomach didnt feel right the last couple of days but i didnt expect to have literally 5 seconds to get myself off a road and into a bush. That would have been fine, except the bushes lining the roads were a mix of bramble, ivy, wild roses, nettle & everything painful known to man. And there were no gaps! I saw a driveway up ahead and I ran for my life, just dumping (excuse the pun) my bag on the road as i was running and just made it. All i can say is that im so glad the group of cyclists who rode past were going so fast they wouldnt have seen. Or maybe they were just too polite to draw attention to someone, pants down on a driveway.
Despite needing to use the bathroom an unhealthy amount of times today and walking 30kms on nothing but 2 pieces of toast and a hell of a lot of water, the countryside was just beautiful. Even if i was cursing the entire day.
I try keep my problems quiet, when i exit the toilet and anna’s waiting with her pack on ready to go. Im thumbling around, cause at 2pm im feeling pretty darn weak and apologize. ‘Dont apologize! Youve just lost half your body weight in fluids!’ Of course right next to a group of australians. Who just laugh, repeat the statement and laugh. Absolutely defeated i just look at them and say ‘it would be more funny if it wasnt true’… but hey you just got to laugh with them.
Im not even going to go into the remaining 4 hours of walking or when i was going toilet in a field, feeling so ill and i look down and theres a bloody spider crawling on me, or the other time where i chose to go on an ants nest or the time where there were cows and i just didnt care. There were some desperate times and some desperate measures! I lost my dignity and my sunglasses today.
I rock into Triasecasa, and hit the pharmacy with anna. Anna thank goodness she speaks spanish and can write prescriptions tried to get antibiotics for me. It was in our grasp until the pharmacist asked if it was for a UTI. Anna said no, then the pharmacist refused to give them to me. I settle for electrolytes and immodium.
I just go straight to bed, i look over at my bunk buddy next to me and he looked even worse off than me. Always good when youve got a Roger Federer esque looking guy next to you and he asks whats wrong with you…
So we bonded. Alberto (mecahnical engineer from seville, spain) has got a badly infected tooth and a fever. But even with all that he still manages to joke in english that hes going to hit me over the head with his pole in my sleep if i snore. Or if i touch his antibiotics, he demonstrated what he’d do to my throat with his phone cable. It was a night back and forwards of how each will kill the other. In between that we both just laid there teaching each other spanish and english. Could have been worse i guess. I could have gone toilet in bed.
Anna furious about being denied the antibiotics, went back up to the pharmacy and luck would have it another pharmacist was there and just handed it to her without question. It better work…
Ive nothing else to say about the day, it was pretty, very different scenery now and i wish i could have enjoyed it more rather than planning my next quick escape.
R. x
Walked all the way upnthr cloudy valley
Looking good after an early start, 5kms and no food
Walking my cows
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