Day 01

Day 01

Make that day 1 at 2:00am.

You have possibly read my entry from yesterday and know that I had an epic 11+ hours of sleep in two parts. The first is my Hostal and then in the afternoon in The Pilgrim House. I’ve had boundless energy all day and am still not even remotely tired. Problem is it’s 2am.

Our Hostal tonight is right on the Melacon running beside the Rio Sarria. A melacon is a promenade typically running beside water. It’s quite pretty and many locals walk this after a night of dinning and drinking. The later it gets more the wandering locals have been spending more time with the drinking side of that equation.

My room was excessively warm so I had the winders open to try and cool the room down. I’m not blaming the intoxicated locals. I’m the one with the open window.

So here I am wide awake finally closing the windows so that I can lay awake in silence.

You’ve just got to laugh at what jet lag can do sometimes.

—————-

Well, it’s 4am and still nuthin’. At least the locals are off the streets. I guess blaming them At this point would be a tad unfair.

—————-

….and at 7am my watch says 2 1/2 hours of accumulated sleep. Lovely.

So Ivar stayed in different accommodations as there weren’t enough rooms for us all. At 8:00am he was waiting in our lobby with Stephen from Scotland. I had to ask everyone if it was OK to include their names.

Shortly after I came down Siobhan from UK arrived followed by Sheron from Australia.

There, now you have all the players in this story. (I wanted to ask everyone if I could include their names and pictures before publishing)

We had a quick bite and then started up the street out of Sarria with the sun almost making it over the hills. Sheron decided to start a bit behind us and we all agreed to meet in Portomarin.

On two and a half hours of sleep every time I am stressing on an uphill I feel like vomiting. I had absolutely no reserves to tackle these massive elevation gains.

Of course not everything is uphill. The downhills were just as awful. Thankfully the poles Ivar donated came in very handy and I survived those without any grace at all.

Stephen, Siobhan, and Ivar were incredibly accommodating, waiting for me at the top of the hills and encouraging me constantly.

I was determined to make it to the 100 km marker. At least let me make it there.

And I did. Coming in dead last but still getting across my self imposed finish line for the day.

To say I was spent is such an understatement. I was spent when we began the day. Now I was burned to a crisp.

When I met up with Siobhan, Steven, and Ivar a taxi was arranged to take me the short distance remaining to Portomarin. The lady who picked me up drove back and forth so many times flying down the single vehicle roads at speeds that impressed and terrified me. We must have crossed the Camino path 7 or 8 times. It seems the pilgrims have a more direct path here.

Ultimately, I’m in my room, showered and waiting for everyone to arrive. Apparently Sheron arrived earlier and the rest of the gang are soon to be here.