Day 12: May 6, 2016

Destination: Unknown but ended up in Belorado as originally planned.

Distance: 23 km

Time: 6:45 hours – 10:00am to 4:45pm

Terrain: slightly rolling, trail right next to highway

Weather: overcast, a few showers, one hail storm, a little sun

Total distance to date: 238km

I had a restless night worrying about my shin and trying to decide what to do for the next day. And then at 9:30pm, 40 teenagers noisily arrived at our “hotel”. Once they settled, they were fine and amazingly quiet although I did hear kids running in the hall at 3-4am.

We slept until past 8 and then got up and discussed our options. My shin was still sore but definitely better. We considered staying an extra night but finally decided to go to the first town and see how I felt. All the towns were 3-5km apart so I would be able to reevaluate at each place. We kept our reservation at our ultimate destination and decided we could always cancel later if needed.

We stopped at the Farmacia on the way out and I bought a second tensor bandage (one for my shin and one for me knee), some Voltaren gel, and more ibuprofen.

I walked slowly. Super slowly. Erik walked on ahead, almost always in sight of me, and then waited for me to catch up. We took a break every hour, usually at each town, and I took more ibuprofen and put on more Voltaren. My shin was fine all day but I had other niggling foot and leg pains so I was uber cautious.

We had rain gear on and went through a few light showers and one hail storms. Other than that, it was nice to walk in cooler weather. It was noisy walking next to the highway all day though.

Ultimately we made it all the way and I felt better today than yesterday. Much better in fact.

We had a shower and unpacked (private room and bath in an Albergue) and then had a beer in the plaza and visited with Erin from Colorado, Carolyn from Calgary (first time we’ve seen her in a week), met two women from Ireland and ran into “Yellowknife” at our Albergue – I can’t remember her name. We also walked awhile today with Gloria and Peter from the UK.

We are now relaxing in our room, waiting for 7pm so we can get our 10 euro dinner. We haven’t decided where to go tomorrow – all the way to st Juan, and a short day to Villafranca? Two more days to Burgos where I want to stay 2 nights.