Day 3 Stats:
Distance = 71.97 km
Elev Gain = 1,173 m
Time = 4h 5m
I recorded a little voice note this morning right after I had crested a climb. Just as a reminder of the previous days happenings so I could write about it later. I remember a bat flying into my hand trying to catch a moth, likely blinded some by my very intense headlight so that I could see where I was going.
As with every day for this trip, I would arrive anywhere between noon and 2pm and this would mostly mean that I would need to wait around some, because the Albergue’s didn’t really allow early check-in. At least I could wash my clothing because the wash-up area was outside. After doing so I first cycled to a lookout point and sat down to journal a bit and take in the view. I could’ve hiked down to the beach, but doing so with my bike just felt like way too much effort. Afterwards I found a nice Mexican restaurant in town to have a bite to eat and a beer to drink.
My Albergue for the evening; Aves de Paso, ran and operated by husband and wife, Anna & Sebastian. It was by far one of my favourite places to stay on the entire trip. A few names of people I met and spoke with; Yvgeny, Guy, Martin, Dominique and Anastasia. This albergue is, wat is called a Donativo, which basically means you donate any amount you feel it’s worth, the minimum being 10 Euro. Guy and I sat at the long table, we would all be eating at later, peeling Chestnuts. Anna had us taste what they were being peeled for. Some sort of spread, like a peanut butter. It was so damn good and I regret not asking if I could buy a jar of it. I also should mention, there are a LOT of Chestnut trees in Spain and if I could’ve harvested and lived off of them for my trip I would have. It felt like every small town or country road I was on there were several of them with hundreds lying on the ground.
All the pilgrims ate together. We were served a salad as starter, pasta was our main and yoghurt with fruit for dessert. I felt very familial and there was just something cool about all of us gathering to eat together after a long day.
Of course on this evening I would have the one person snoring in the room on the bunk above me. The plus side to this was that I could poke him through the mattress and that seemed to have helped some. I got up at 6am, took all my stuff out of the room and downstairs to pack. There is nothing more annoying than the rustling of someone’s bags and I wanted to be thoughtful to folks still sleeping.
I ended up staying and eating breakfast with the whole gang and then I set off.
My next destination; La Isla and one of the toughest, but most beautiful days of my trip.