I don’t know where to start with this post. The last 6 days has felt like it flew by but also like it was the longest days of my life. I also learned I can hike 15km as a warm up.

We started on October 1st, walking at noon on a rainy, blustery day in Valenca, Portugal. We quickly crossed over in Spain and picked up our Camino passports in Tui and our packs felt particularly heavy. The trail itself wound through the city and out into the countryside and it all was very pretty and new. We saw a few other pilgrims walking and offered “Buen Camino” as we passed by and commiserated about the weather with those who spoke English. And then we just marched, our destination O Porrino approximately 20km away.

We passed through little villages with winding pathways and stopped for a well deserved hot coffee and lunch along the way. I commented that we looked like teletubbies as we battled the rain.

We arrived at our destination about 5:30pm and were very happy to get our packs off and have a hot shower. We washed our muddy clothes and went to find dinner. We had one rule for the evening: everything had to be within a 1 minute walk as our legs were not working so well.

The next morning greeted us with another very rainy day and we scurried to a laundromat to dry our clothes and then went and found breakfast. In Spain, breakfast seems to be bread with thinly sliced meat or a “tortilla” which is a Spanish style omelette served cold. They also serve this when you order a drink, tapa style. So we had an excellent coffee, a tortilla, and hit the trail again.

I will add that we overpacked for the Camino. I was determined that we carry ALL our gear even though we were also carrying stuff for the following week. Honestly though, our packs were too heavy. The recommendation is to carry a max of 10% of your body weight and we were all carrying over 25lb. With that note, we were struggling. Our bodies hurt and we all were digging deep to stay upbeat as we walked.

Day 2 was O Porriño to Redondela (16.2km) and very few photos were taken as everything was wet.

Arriving in Redondela was magic. The city is so pretty with ancient architecture and a beautiful waterway. However, we saw very little as we were exhausted from the weight of our packs. We went for a lame dinner and went straight to sleep.

So after 2 days of walking roughly 35km we were feeling beat down. And then Coreena started having trouble with her foot. Her toe was not happy and we were a little worried for the next few days.

More on that and our remaining adventure later.

This is what I think about when walking all day (mostly in order):

Excitement about what I’ll see that day.

How many hills?

I wish I had a different water bottle.

If I won the lotto what would I do?

Everyone keeps chickens in their yard and grows grapes, corn, and brussels yet I can’t seem to order any of those items in a restaurant.

What am I going to eat later?

Who maintains the Camino?

Am I going to get an infection from walking in wet shoes everyday?

Why does everyone smoke in this country?