Oct 1, 20174 min read

Day 30 – where are they coming from?!

Day 30 – Palas de Rei to Rabidiso de Baixo. 25.5kms, 8 hours.

Highlight of the day definitely getting good coffee and churros at a churroria. And now being less than 50km out from Santiago.

After yesterdays incredibly long day, we were feeling it this morn so had a cruisey 8am start. There are crowds of people now! Bus loads! And now for a bit of casual racism, theres a bus load of asians who have just appeaed out of no where, absolutely covered head to toe (heaven help if they got some sun on their skin). They are a walking Anaconda catalog!

Its actually starting to get on most of the ‘original’ pilgrims nerves. We’re wishing we were back in the maseta, back where there was no one around, rather than being in crowds of people. We’re now a minority so when we see someone we do know it gets more exciting.

I cant sing out loud any more as there are always people. Kidding, i still do. I even got stopped by a man today. ‘Were one of you singing?’ ‘Yes jess and i both were’. ‘It sounded like someone was singing simon & Garfunkel, i just couldnt work out the song’. Obviously my singing is that bad that he couldnt tell from all the ‘lie lie lie, lie lie lie lie lie lie lie, lie lie lie’ that i was clearly singing ‘The Boxer’.

Passed another lady who looked like she was dying. I asked if she was ok? ‘Oh that hill really took it out of me!’ Hill?? That was a 2% gradual incline over 400m. I gritted my teeth, Smiled and told her shes doing well and things will improve.

What did brighten our day and make us laugh a lot more than it probably should of, was someones passive aggressive graffiti along the way today. Whoever wrote it no doubt started in St Jean and is equally fed up with the others.

Jesus wouldnt bring a suitcase.

Jesus wouldnt start in assaria.

Jesus doesnt care about stamps.

Then there was a bit of camino graffiti banter with steve. Whoever motivational quote steve is/was. Steve has been writing inspirational quotes along the way. Someone hadnt found him too inspiring. As ‘shut the f up Steve’ appeared in black nikko.

We stopped in Mesida for lunch which is a town famous for its octopus. Nope no thanks. Instead We stopped for a picnic in the square which had old men just sitting on every seat. Was so lovely to watch them, watching us. Haha. A churroria caught our eye over the street so we headed there for post lunch coffee and churros. Only to be complemented by an old man, who stopped watching soccer on tv to call me over and tell me, the three of us are beautiful.

After a few churros we continue on with 10km to go. It was quite hilly so still a good saturday afternoon work out. Again this afternoon was like being back home. Apart from all the corn fields we were walking past – who knew there were gum trees in Spain. Lots of them.

We come down the hill and see a beautiful old stone bridge, people soaking their feet in the water and a bunch of old stone buildings. Thats our town for the night!

So for 6 euro we struck it lucky and have a small room in the attic to ourselves while everyone else is sleeping below us 20 to a room. Jess has top bunk but the ladder is right on the window, so she pretty much has to climb outside to get into bed. We promise to continue the walk to Finnistere even if she does fall to her death out the window during the night. We’ll leave passport sized photos of her along the way.

I sat outside with Matteas (Argentinian) and Jacob (german), for a bit this arvo. They had cask wine but no cups so ever so classy we were drinking straight from the cask. But gosh a wine or a beer after you finish walking is the best thing ever. Theyre another few who you just leap frog all day and then end up at the same town at night.

Luckily its just us in here as our room smells & feels like one big deep heat sauna. The 3 of us just laid on our beds after showering, deep heating ourselves for a good 30 mins. And to quote Anna ‘i cant believe i havent been using deep heat my whole life!’ Stuffs amazing. And boy our noses havent been clearer.

We hit the town for dinner, well the one bar you can go. Got good old vienna for dessert. The ice cream log your mum would only buy back in the 90’s when special guests were coming for dinner. Still tasted as good if not better as it did 25 years ago.

Its 8:30pm its still light outside but we’re tucked up in our little stone room, listening to the running water in the creek beside us, questioning life choices like what on earth did we even think our bodies would feel like after 4 weeks walking. Why did we not even think we would be hurting so much?! This walk is seriously hard on your body.

Another early start tomorrow to avoid the masses. Least weve only a short 22kms to walk tomorrow. Easy as!

R. X