Day: April 8, 2019

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This was my breakfast yesterday on my solo walk. The yolks here have such vivid colors.

A short day, 6.7 miles. Charlie recovering from yesterday. Mostly road walking, but pleasant. We skipped a Norte longcut. We’re staying at a little rural family hotel/albergue under the A8. 35 euro. The track is here. We had lunch here at the hotel (menú del día) around 2:30, then rested, then walked down to the beach behind our hotel, adding another mile to our daily total. Photo at the rocky beach:

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We’re under the A8.

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Okay the roadway narrows in 4.25 meters, about 15 feet. Can’t I just look ahead and see it? And accuracy to 1 cm, less than half an inch?

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Blue house. Blue sky. Blue ocean.

A little more on this. In Italy when we walked the via Francigena we hated the road walking. Busy highways with no shoulders and fast Italian drivers. It’s different here on th N-632, wide shoulders. More careful drivers. A car every 3-4 minutes. These “N” roads are for local traffic. The long trips are on the mighty A8, high above.

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In which TruePilgrim®️ goes road walking then trail walking and has to confront his values at the Slough of Despond and getting what you wish for is evaluated.

Track is here.

left Wynette at the FEVE station and started for Ballota, walking along the N-632a, that is, road walking. Road walking is anathema to TruePilgrim because we want the true pilgrim experience of walking along forest trails far from the highway. There you can think deep thoughts.

This continued for six miles into Ballota, a lovely little town with interesting buildings and a view of the ocean. I was thinking that I would be road walking all day and wishing for something different. Ominously, as I found out later, a ballota is a deep narrow valley.

Walking out on the N-632a I missed the Camino cutoff but noticed a few hundred feet later and doubled back. The trail went steeply down and was rocky and hard to walk on.

About a quarter mile and 380 feet down I got to this little beach.

The trail then switched around and went back up 380 feet ending maybe 300 feet from where I started down. Worth it? Maybe. I was pretty tired now, you feel the 20 pound pack more going uphill. The trail crossed over a bit and then went down to the water again. Now I’m pretty tired. Unfortunately it was sunny for once.

Besides the up and down there is the mud.

And the water crossing.

Okay, that wasn’t so bad but it is the principle of the thing that matters.

Over again and down the third ballota. Now I’m a lot tired but I have to press on to make it to meet Wynette for a late lunch. Also my phone battery is down to 28%. I am recordings the track and I don’t want to lose it so I can use to to complain to people about what a hard day I had.

After another mile I am back on the N-632a. I am now glad to be road walking but time is passing and my battery is going so I have to walk as quickly as I can. Finally getting into Cadavedo there is a long uphill into town. 15 miles for the day. I am hot and sweaty and it was great to see Wynette and the bungalow she had gotten us and have lunch (at 3:30).

They are continually changing the Camino Del Norte, getting rid of road walking and replacing it with “long cuts” where you walk an extra mile or two, go up and down a few hundred extra feet and go through some mud.

We turned in our TruePilgrim card.