Camino: Day 10 & 11-Tackling the BIG Hill!

Day 10 - June 29, 2023

We left Rendondela early in the morning. Gotta love those early mornings. I am able to clock a lot of distance when it’s still cool. Still finish after everyone else but it would be much longer after everyone else if I started later. 

Walking through the various towns we have been in, early in the morning, is really lovely. It’s quiet and there is a stillness you don’t see when you arrive in the afternoon. 

We would be tackling a couple of hills and I was anxious to see how my hip held up. 

We started off at a good pace and it felt like the first five miles clocked right along. That’s a good feeling at the beginning of a long day. 

The route kept us higher so we got some great views of the coves below. 

We had two big climbs to do so we made sure to take our two hour break to rest up the feet and get some food and water. I’m trying to be very diligent about taking care of my blisters. We still have a ways to go!

We got through the first hill pretty well. I didn’t try and rush and took lots of small steps, and just kept working my way up. 

I’m finding the downhills to be almost worse than the uphill. Downhill pushes my feet to the front of my shoes which aggravates the blisters on my toes.  

Josh and Wendie caught up with us and then kept right on chugging along. We weren’t too far behind them when we got to a cafe at the top of the second hill. It was so nice to have a break and get some food! 

We chatted with a guy from Arizona, a girl from South Carolina, a couple of people from New Zealand. We also waved and said “Buen Camino” to several people we had seen on the trail. It was a nice break.  

It wasn’t long before we were heading into Pontevedra. Our hotel was pretty much a straight shot into town on the Camino route. We had made such good time that we were early for the 2:00 pm checkin. 

Conveniently there was a cafe right by the hotel so we had a drink to pass the time until we could check in. We no sooner had placed our drink order when Robin and Sea showed up on their bikes! So they joined us since they couldn’t get into their room either. We had a fun time swapping tales of our adventures for the day. 

It wasn’t long before our room was ready and we were able to go up and get cleaned up and rest. 

The plan was to meet everyone for dinner. I misread the text and thought the reservation was for 6:00 pm. It was actual a reservation for 6 people at 8:00 pm. Oops. 

We had brought our dirty clothes along because we were going to wash our clothes after dinner. So we just went and took care of that before dinner. When you only have a few sets of clothes laundry becomes very important. It was nice to have an actual washer and dryer instead of washing the clothes in the sink and hanging them dry around the hotel room. 

Nobody has dryers in their homes. That’s why we see clothes lines everywhere. Makes me appreciate my walk in closet full of cloths and the ability to use a huge washer and dry everything in the dryer!!

The square where the restaurant we were going to us a huge convent next to it. We sat at on a bench in the square and people watched.  We saw kids playing futbal, making the goals using their jackets to mark out where the ball had to go. There was a large group of senior citizens in wheelchairs under some trees talking and feeding the pigeons. They’re little kids chasing the pigeons and people walking their dogs. The dogs were also chasing the pigeons.  

Church and convent of San Francisco, A Coruña, Pontevedra, Spain

Dinner was amazing.  Once again I had prawns.  Kinda messy to eat because they bring them to you whole, but it’s so worth it!   Yum!

We headed back to the hotel so that we could get organized and be ready for an early start the next morning.  Day 11 we will be taking the Spiritual Variante which deviates from the main Camino route for about three days.  They should be long, hot days so we wanted to get an early start.

Day 11 - June 30, 2023

The first day of the Spiritual Variante.  

This was the stage with the BIG hill.  

The big hill with a lot of elevation. Ugh!

I was a little nervous but my hip was doing pretty good so I was feeling like overall it would go well.  It was supposed to be hot so we definitely wanted an early start. 

We were packed up and headed out the door around 6:45 am.  It was nice and cool and the sun was just comping up.  Pontevedra looks a lot different when there are no people around.  

We clicked right along and soon we were at the point where we decide if we do the regular route or the Spiritual Variante.  We had been following quite a few pilgrims out of town.  They all turned right.  

We turned left.  😆

New sign to be looking for.

Big signboard letting us know our options.

We went up the first hill walking through small neighborhoods.  Many of the hills were steep and windy, barely enough room for a car let alone a car with two pilgrims with backpacks walking along the side.  We were always keeping our ears out for the sound of cars.  

San Juan de Poio monastery.

There is also an albergue (hostel) at this monetary.

We passed a huge monastery and decided it was time for our first break of the day.  We had gone about 5 miles and had a pretty solid pace.  The hills weren’t too overwhelming for me, it was still cool outside and my hip and feet weren’t mad yet.  

We go some drinks and a snack and were hanging out for a bit when guess who we see again?  Yep, our wonderful Camino sister, Irina!!  We thought she was going to be walking farther the day before and that we probably wouldn’t see her again.  Joe looked up the hill we had just come down and says, “You won’t believe who I see!”  

Then he stands up, throws his hands in the air and shouts, “IRINA!!!”  

She is shaking her head and laughing at her crazy Oregon friends, all while trying to walk and get her phone out to take pictures of us.  Lol. 

Irina and her new walking buddy, Hammish.

We had met her latest walking buddy the day before.  I nice young man named Hammish, who was from New Zealand.  Hammish sticks out the memory easily because he has duct tape all over his shoes.  We asked him about it the day before.  He didn’t have enough cushioning on the soles of the shoes he brought.  So he bought some flip flops, took out the strap and then used the duct tape to secure it to the bottom of his shoe.  When we first met him the duct tape was looking pretty ragged.  But he had found a store with a new roll so he was able to redo his wrapping and was good to go.  Lol. It may seem silly but it was working for him and it was on the cheap.  Win win!

Walking shoes with flip flop sole a la duct tape!

They took off after a bit with some prompting from Hammish to get Irina moving. Probably the last time we would see her while we were on the Camino trail.  

Joe and I got going not long after that.  We still hadn’t seen Josh and Wendie.  We thought they might have caught up with us by this point but not yet.  

The trail brought us all the way down to sea level before we started going up the big hill for the day.  

Nothing like making us start as low as we could go before sending us up.  

Sea level at low tide in Combarrow, Spain

It wasn’t long before we were heading up the second hill of the day.  It was much hotter by this time and I was much slower.  But I just kept plugging away at each steep part and worked really hard at not letting it feel undoable in my own head.  

The elevation on the big hill.  460 meters = 1,509 feet

I had estimated the hill would be about 4 miles of up.  So in my head I broke it down into worrying about one mile at a time.  Seems much more doable.  

We worked our way through the town and as usual, the streets were narrow and steep.  We are pretty sure we know why you don’t see many heavy Spanish people!  Whew! 

We were going through one neighborhood and this couple starts yelling at us in Spanish.  Joe was ahead of me and there was a marker for the Camino in front of him.  They were telling us to not go that way and to turn left instead.  Then I realized there was a construction sign that looked like a detour for the Camino.  Joe and the couple talked about it and we figured out that the road was blocked ahead and we needed to take the detour.  I’m so thankful they stopped us.  It would have been the pits to get up that part of the hill only to have to come back down and go back up another way.

Detour on the Camino, but it was well marked!

As we continued our climb we would stop for breaks in shady spots.  Joe was going for 10 minutes walking and 2 minutes resting.  Then we would turn around and look at the view. 

Wowzers!  It was stunning!

Josh and Wendie caught up with us a little over halfway up the hill.  It was awesome to see them and have some laughs as we all worked our way up.  

We came to a lookout spot and it was awesome to see how far up we had gotten.  We weren’t quite to the top but it was a great place to take our higher elevation picture to compare to our sea level picture. 

Not at Sea Level Anymore Picture

We made it to the top!  I did really solid.  Basically kept working my way up and not thinking about the top but just thinking about taking the next step.  Being in the moment as they say. 

Our day was not quite done.  We did have a decent to do into the town of Armenteira.  This was steep and pretty rocky in places so it took some time.  I’m not much faster at steep downhills than I am steep uphills.    But when you get out of that section you pop out onto a road and this is the view. 

Looking down into Amenteira.

We took one more little trail and it pops you out right in front of the one bar/restaurant in the little town.  Josh and Wendie were sitting at a table having a beer waiting for us.  So lots of cheering and some crying. (No, it wasn’t Josh crying, it was me if you can believe that! Lol) 

I just walked 13.73 miles, had a total of 2,310 feet of ascent throughout the entire day and all of that was after already having walked 112.2 miles in the 10 days leading up to this.  

Yep.  

I’m a badass!!! 

One of the things that I really have had to work hard on over the years is comparing myself to others or putting down my accomplishments because I didn’t do it as fast or as well as someone else.  

I think I am pretty much over that.  

Because the feeling I had as I walked down that last little slope to my husband and my friends was that I rocked my day!

And it felt really good!

So on the days that I am doubting myself I’m going to look at this picture and remind myself that I am a badass.  💜

Since we couldn’t check into the hotel for over an hour we sat and had drinks and got a snack at the restaurant.  Sangria and “chips” for the win.  (French fries!)

Then we went over to the monastery that is located in town to look around and see if we could get stamps for our Camino passport.  The spot to get the stamps was closing but we could come back later and get it done.  We wandered around the monastery a bit.  Yet another beautiful building! 

Soon it was time to check into the hotel.  We had to walk up yet another hill to get there but it was so nice to get into the nice air conditioned room and relax before dinner. 

Dinner was back to the same place we had our snack earlier.  It was close and it was basically the only show in town.  Lol. But we definitely were cleaner the second time around. 

So far, at the end of Day 11 I have walked 125.9 miles.  Still four more days to go.  I’m a little behind on sharing but hopefully I will be caught up tomorrow!  

Buen Camino!!