Day 8 Stats:
Distance = 66.93 km
Elev Gain = 1,411 m
Time = 4h 28m
Waking up after the previous days mad winds and the rain I was feeling hopeful. The rain from the previous day had cleared up and I was ready to set off for the next town; Vilalba. I planned on stopping in Mondoñedo for breakfast before continuing on. If anyone can tell me how to turn off the “CLIMB” notification on the Wahoo ELMNT, please do.
As I entered Mondoñedo the Wahoo screamed at me that there was an 11 kilometer (6.84 miles) climb ahead. Oh joy!
And the cherry on top of all of this? It begun raining as soon as I sat down for breakfast and wouldn’t stop until I reached Vilalba. I was incredibly thankful for the rain jacket I had bought for this trip. A couple hours of rain and it did a damned good job of keeping me mostly dry. The strange thing about this rainy day and the climb was as I was struggling up this never ending hill two thoughts crossed my mind; “I fucking hate this and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world”. We’re such walking contradictions.
As you can see by the images above, I was treated to some fantastic views and the sun bursting through the clouds before I would eventually get caught in the rain for the rest of the day. The wind wasn’t as intense as the day prior, however, it was still windy and gusty, but the rain was the big contender on the day.
I think my stay in Vilalba was by far the loneliest one I had been the entire trip. The municipal Albergue had zero utensils, pots, pans or plates. The initial Albergue I showed up to seemed to not be operational. (Editors Note: Looking back at the map now I see my mistake. I was RIGHT there, but the google maps image I was looking at was showing the building across the Albergue. Sigh).
Anyway, back to the post. So yeah, I couldn’t make any of the food I had bought at the grocer. I then decided to go to a Kebab restaurant, but when I got there, it was closed, so I went to the restaurant next to where I was staying and they weren’t serving any food at the time. FML! Then I went BACK to the grocer to buy bread, butter and tuna. That was the easiest thing I could think of making, so that ended up being my very sad dinner. Haha.
Other people did eventually arrive at the Albergue, but the first guy (an old Spanish gentleman) didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Spanish. Two younger guys (Mario and Pepe) arrived later, but we didn’t really engage much other than saying hello to one another. This was the first time I used my earphones on the entire trip to listen to music and podcasts. It was basically a last resort kinda thing for when days got too tough and I really needed the extra ‘oomph’ music can give you. So this was my saving grace on the lonely day :)