100k 'mile'stone and the extent to the graffiti
“Blistergate”
7 a.m. start after machine cafe con leche (NB: Dulce means with sugar…yuck!). There seemed to be an explosion in the numbers of people on the trail today, lots of new faces, but Damien says today is the day people will start the walk, as you have to complete the final 100km to get your certificate. We are now into ´Mickey Mouse´territory…the signs are cartoon like, which is criticised in our guide book, they are a bit cheesy. We have passed many vending machines too, in the most remote and random of places…where there´s money to be made.
We stop as Damien is showing the first signs of weakness, he takes off his shoe to reveal a fantastic blister on the end of his little pinky toe. Cool, I get to inflict pain and put needle and thread to it (apparently it helps to leave thread in a blister so it drains slower…eeeuuuggghhh!). Oh boy, did he slow me down after this…he had to go.
Called my best matey Helen, as it was her birthday, and spoke to Mum as they had been up to see Helen the previous night…but it´s not cool really to be walking and talking on the mobile, when doing a pilgrimage through quiet Spanish villages…ka cha.
We finally passed the 100km marker, well there was two, and both had been vandalised (shell stolen from one and the other graffitied).
We arrived at Portomarin our final destination…weather a bit poor again…town a bit sleepy and again not particularly attractive, we have noticed a definite change in the scenery and the weather doesn´t help matters.
Our accommodation was infiltrated with a large group of excited students, “ah oh”, we thought…but as it turned out, they were fine, however the Canadian man sleeping in the opposite bunk, had a wee sleep problem…I will not relive the horrendous noises coming from his orifices, but it kept us awake until 2am. We woke him and his wife (who also started to snore after she´d initially tried to wake her husband and get him to stop snoring…she failed), to ask him to stay awake for at least 2 hours so we could get some sleep. He replied sleepily, ´Ok, I can try to do that´, and then promptly fell asleep within 10 seconds and started to snore again. We fell asleep from exhaustion.
p.s. my tolerance of others aim has slipped a little notch or two….oh and Damien started to develop his
Ha ha! Good funny post:
“He replied sleepily, ´Ok, I can try to do that´, and then promptly fell asleep within 10 seconds and started to snore again.”