The Hills Are Alive, With The Sound Of Glenn Whinging (Day 27)

Today’s hike was the longest one remaining and had the hardest ascents (and descents) that are left in the journey. I guess that’s what happens when you have to go over mountains. You go up, then you go down. Then up. Then down. Repeat. Repeat.

I have mentioned that the pace you see on this includes all of my breaks, right? I don’t pause the watch because my dumb ass will undoubtedly forget to restart it.

So while climbing and descending sucks, it also is the way you get amazing vistas.

“Amazing” vista number 1

Vista #2

The problem with amazing vistas is that I can’t photograph them to save my life. The pictures are fine but they can’t capture the depth of the view. Just trust me when I say they were impressive. The trail was also really lush and green and the woods were beautiful.

So what could be better than this you might ask? Not walking uphill or downhill. I’m tired of walking either. This is also a prime example of me whinging. I quite like that word and I’ve heard it used a fair amount (only once directed at me) on this trip. It’s a British word that means “to complain annoyingly”. I’ve done a fair amount of it the last couple of days, although it’s almost entirely been internally. I did walk around a bend yesterday to see another steep hill in front of me. Before I could stop myself I said aloud, “oh, for fucks sake”. I heard a snickering from my right and a gentlemen stated, “that’s what I thought too”. Whinging is an integral part of my camino journey. I’ve had a lot of amazing discussions with people while walking and I’ve gained a fair amount of insight from them. I’ve also had some hysterically funny conversations with other walkers and these have almost always been full of whinging about one thing or another. Complaining is fun. Complaining with others is even more fun. The whinging is never about other people or cultures or anything along those lines. It’s almost always about ourselves (and how out of shape we are) or the route (the above mentioned hills have been fuel for many a whinging session). One lady two nights ago said, “my body is a temple. But it’s like one of those temples that Indiana Jones discovers and it’s ancient and decrepit and could collapse at any moment.” I like that. A self deprecating pop culture reference self slam. Well done nice Australian lady.

Tomorrow holds our final big descent so I am certain I will have some good whinge fuel and I intend to let them fly. Internally of course, except for the occasional accidental f-bomb.

Found the safest bridge on the camino

I split my apple with this dude mid-hike. I think we’re now pals.

Laziest guard dog ever.

This was how I felt at the end of the hike.