We. Slept. In.

Well, for us anyways. The sun was up this morning when we left by 7! That’s sleeping in. More and more our morning selfies are being photo bombed by the wonderful people we are with and I love it!

Again today, the miles are getting less and less. WE ARE SO CLOSE. We will be in Santiago on Saturday! Thats crazy! Everything we have done up to this point will all come to an end and culminate.. in two days! I can’t believe how far we have come and how much we have conquered. Debbie says her bag finally feels lighter, I think she is just stronger. I think she knows she is too.

Today’s walk was shorter than most, only about 20km. Don’t worry, it still smelled AWFUL. But looks pretty. More and more people every day which feels frustrating. But, it’s just part of it.
I can at this point safely say that the last 100km of the Camino are the least pretty. After Sarria, it just isn’t that great. Don’t get me wrong, parts are still beautiful. There are amazing forrests and landscapes, just not as jaw dropping as the rest of the Camino, I feel.

We had lunch about halfway, in the main city stop from the book. The patatas bravas was delicious. My salad, again, not so much. We ran into Daniel, Audrey, Scott, and Stuart again and talked. They will be in Santiago in the morning! We stopped in a shop that had Pandora charms because I saw one about the Camino that I loved and Debbie so very sweetly purchased it for me. She wanted to get me something and now she has gotten me the perfect charm for my bracelet! It’s a Camin shell that we always see with beautiful green rhinestones. I absolutely love it and will now always remember (like I would forget) this trip and who gifted it to me. We had a moment in the store and then carried on!

We got to our albgerue an hour before it opened. There were three cats that just wanted all of the loving. The place was in the middle of nowhere, so we just sat on the deck and waited. Some of us loving on the cats, others demanding they go away, haha.

This albgerue was pretty stinking cute. It’s run by a northern Italian woman who has lived in Spain for close to 10 years now named Heidi. She is the kindest. Her albergue includes her washing, drying, and folding our laundry. She only has 8 beds and isn’t open every day. She says the albergue isn’t her business, just something she opens sometimes and has. She takes the phone calls and judges by her gut whether she will host the group or not. It’s actually quite great. She had the best kitchen, which I loved and took way too many photos of. I also smacked my head on the low fernace top thing and got a lump immediately. Also, kittens. The adorable cats we loved on also had adorable KITTENS.

We walked 600 meters more down to the nearest shop for some wifi and snacks. I’ve been so great about food on most of the Camino until about this last week or so, it’s just absolutely gone downhill. I’ve had all the ice cream. Anyways, after we walked back, finished showering up and had some tea.

A of bikes rolled in, four of them, with a camera crew asking for beds. When there were no beds, they asked if they could camp. Heidi said yes and then they began. The main guy is Dave “the moose” Morissette who is a Canadian guy that played 11 games in the NHL for the Montreal Canadiens. He now does a sports TV show in Canada. Oh, right. They were from Quebec. French-Canadians. He is biking the Camino with his two sons and his father, who is 68 I think, and the TV channel is making a documentary of it. It was weird to me that he just walked in and told us all of this out the gate, but, they were nice. One of their crew members took the 8th bed in our room. He had the most uncomfortable nervous laugh between every sentence he said. So these guys were all here. Pitching their tents, filming, and making a fire. Heidi made them dinner and did their laundry as well! She was phenomenal, working over time. Kat and I didn’t take the meal, but it smelled delicious! And I know she made crepes. So sad I missed out, but I wasn’t hungry!

I laid in bed a while, watching Queer Eye, writing my blog and then decided to go outside. I sat with Jen and Jens (who was so drunk on wine!), Kieran, and one of the crew guys that were with the cycalists who’s name I don’t know. It was a good conversation. Jen and the crew guy talked a lot about the tensions in Canada, the divide between the Candians and French-Canadians. I learned a lot I didn’t know about Canada. As far as I’m concerned, everyone in Canada is holding hands and singing kumbaya because they’re so awesome and nice. But, I guess it isn’t quite as harmonious as one would imagine. It was great to listen and to learn. After a while, I was tired and climbed into bed.

Day mileage: 12.7
Total mileage: 461.2ish
Personal mileage: 13.91