Day 8: Who Are All These People?

Day 8 started with a pre-dawn walk along the water that was pretty amazing despite the fact I couldn’t get away with my daily sandwich caper. You see, the castle place was so damned fancy they only had big cloth napkins and stealing one of those to wrap my sammy seemed like a small step towards actual larceny, petty though it may be. It was also so amazing that I forgot to take any pictures, other than the title one for this page. The first 3-4 miles were some of the prettiest of the whole trip. Some of it even had me hiking on the beach.

That was the actual Camino for a bit.

Then came the mediocre part. The rest of the route wound through beach towns and the sun was no joke. The towns were nice enough but it was all on tarmac that just wrecks my feet. I’m in Hokas, which have a ton of padding, but they still took an absolute beating and foot maintenance is about to become a thing on this journey. Hot spots, maybe a blister, a bruise on the top, I’ve got all manner of things going on. None of them bad yet so I think it should be fine but a little annoying. I had almost no foot issues last Camino. I know, comparison is the thief of joy so I’ll stop comparing them.

Around mid-day I also noticed that there were a hell of lot more pilgrims than I had seen in my previous 7 days. I finally asked someone and found out that where I started this morning is the closest town you can begin in to get the 100km required to receive a compostela. The increase in walkers wasn’t nearly as drastic as it was last camino (I know, comparison is the thief of etc., etc.) but it was still noticeable. I have also surmised, through the highly scientific process of looking around me, that the number of women outnumber men at about 8 to 1. It’s wild how big the disparity is. I asked a friend who walked this route earlier this year if she noticed the same thing and she had. Not sure what it means, it’s just an observation that is distractingly obvious at this point. It’s kind of fun to spot the new walkers as well. They are all clean and damned fast. In one of the towns I looked up and saw this is someone’s garden:

What the actual fuck?

After I stopped screaming I continued on and as I neared Vigo (my destination city) the path got worse. Having done 2 1/2 long walks now I can say for certain that my least favorite part is coming into a city. It’s loud and busy with tons of concrete and hard to find trail markers. Vigo is apparently a big ship building town and I got a lovely tour of the shipyards for the last 2-3 miles. It was really noisy and had the added bonus of smelling like diesel and ass. I’m now in the old town section of Vigo near the water and it’s quite nice.

I did 18.5 miles today and have another 16.5 tomorrow and I suspect it’s going to be a lot of tarmac. I’m hoping the feet hold up okay. Tomorrow is also the last day along the water before the path heads inland for the final 4 days into Santiago. I expect hills and heat but I think I’m ready. I think the terrain will remind me of last camino (I know, comparison, blah, blah, blah) and I’m looking forward to the change.

Now it’s time for the lubing and taping. Of my feet that is. I want to be clear on that.

Spanish cities are also full of this bullshit. I had at least 4 of these in the last 5k to my hotel

Sea captain person who I don’t have good enough internet service to look up. You probably do though, go nuts

Todays fit was inspired by the little known Monks Of Thunderous Flatulence. It was a small order in a cavernous section of Estonia. Anyway, they inspired this look