Our typical morning routine: get up at 5:00 am; visit the bathroom quickly (sometimes our "own," sometimes a shared facility); put on hiking clothes (half of which were donned before bed, and half of which have usually been worn for a couple of days already); doctor up our feet for their daily trek (smearing with vaseline and applying band-aids in strategic spots to allay blisters); eat a quick bite from our grocery bag (bread and peanut butter, a banana, crackers, or whatever we have); fill water bottles; don headlamps; grab hiking sticks; drop Betty's and Laurel's packs in the lobby for our buddy JacoTrans to pick up and transfer to our next Albergue down the road (Jim carries his daily); Jim sets "Run-keeper" to log our distance for the day; and then hit the trail (normally by 6:00 am). It's still dark, but we've scoped out the route out of town the day before, and our headlamps locate the way-markers. After walking for about an hour, it starts getting lighter. We are used to being the only peregrinos we see as we set out in the morning, but now that we are within 100 kms of Santiago, there are many other early pilgrims; along the dark path in front of us, we see their lights bobbing here and there.
The weather gods favoured us today with cooler temperatures and overcast sky, but no rain. The mountains are well behind us now, and our terrain consists of wide rolling hills and valleys with numerous streams. We walked through fragrant eucalyptus forests, with foggy hills covered in pine trees on the horizon beyond. Our Swaziland friends can picture it, as it seemed like we would come upon The Forester's Arms Hotel (near Mbabane) around the next bend! And at another part of the trail, we passed by a stand of poplar trees which had dropped yellow leaves all over the path. The farms are bigger, and look more prosperous, in this area than were those in the mountains when we first had entered Galicia. Black slate roofs have now reverted to red tile again; stone houses are more likely to be covered with plaster/stucco and painted white or other colours. The ubiquitous "Pilgrim's Menu" finally has more variety -- in recent days, we've had delicious beef stew, chicken thighs with mushrooms, grilled octopus with potatoes, lemon chicken, roast pork, fish, salads, slow cooked beef tongue with peppers, and chickpea-tripe soup (okay, that last one was not exactly delicious, but it was alright--Laurel tried it).
We easily reached Casteneda, where we'll do laundry and relax. Only 45 kms yet to go!
