Distance: 12.07 miles & 6.49 miles/19.42 km & 10.44 km
Elevation Gain: 1056ft & 718ft/ 321m & 219m
Time: 4h 56m & 2h 16m
Today started like any other. After a poor night’s sleep at the albergue (bunk beds in a room full of people doesn’t always make the best recipe for the most restful sleep), we woke up early to get ready and going by 7:30am. We start our day with an easy 18km in mind. It’s yet another cool morning, this time a little extra foggy, so we’re really feeling the cold.
We’re about 8-10km in, with our usual coffee and tortilla breakfast in our bellies already consumed by 9:30am, knowing we only have less than 10km (think maybe 2 more hours of walking) ahead of us, when we start to have a thought.
We’re less than 10km away from our stop for the night but our bodies are feeling good, even a little restless, you might say. It’s as if 18 km (11 miles) just felt too easy today. The thought that kept popping in our heads: “What if….we kept going?” We had previously talked about finding places to sleep outside of the main towns everyone stops at to get away from the crowds but hadn’t put in much effort to do it. We were happy to have found a place to stay in the first place given all the trouble we had to find them. But now, with less than 10km to go, knowing we can do way more, we decide it couldn’t hurt to look for albergues in towns 5-10km after our original stop. What’s an extra 1-2 hours of walking at this point? With some searching, calling, and sending messages through WhatsApp (the main and best way to book these places), we finally land a place 11km away from our original stay in O Pedrouzo.
So begins the second half of our day. We had finalized our booking in Lavacolla, the town we decided to switch to, in our original stop. We ended up passing on our reservation to some friends we had made who had been struggling to find accommodations. We decided to take an extra long break: we shared some meatballs and rice for lunch, my dad a beer, me a coffee to wake me up (and avoid yesterday’s incident of a big meal), and switched to a fresh pair of socks, and an hour later we were on our way, on track to arrive by 4pm.
The rest of the way was a lonely one.
We loved it. It felt like the previous week again, where it was rare, but not improbable, to run into other people. We had the trail to ourselves.
Two (admittedly long) hours later, we finally made it to our destination! The albergue is incredibly modern. It is immaculately clean, well organized, and the bunk beds have privacy curtains!! We met other peregrinos who have been on entirely different routes than we have (look up el Camino Norte & Primitivo, we’ve been on the Frances btw), and even one lady who also lives in Austin.
The evening was relaxing. We had our afternoon drink, had a delicious dinner, and shared a bottle of wine in the albergue’s beautiful backyard. It was the perfect way to cap our unexpectedly long day. It’s wild how two back to back 18 mile days can feel so vastly different.
Tomorrow we arrive to our final destination: Santiago de Compostela! We expect to arrive bright and early, considering we’re only 10km away (2 hours walking!!). Cheers to our last day on the Camino ❤️
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