Off to an unexpected early start today. It gives way for the longest day so far. During my first three days I am averaging a lot more than I originally had imagined. Let’s talk numbers.
It was just a couple of days before I left on this trip when I started thinking about how many kilometres I would have to do per day. It felt a bit weird that it was one of the last things I thought about while preparing for this trip. My attention had gone more into collecting all of the gear for this trip and not so much in a planning of how many kilometres I should walk or which route to take. I knew I had enough time to get from Porto to Santiago in between my arrival at Porto on the 15th of November and my flight back on the 4th of December. But when I fantasize about adventures like this I always at some point calculate how much time it would take me realistically to walk/travel a certain distance. It’s part of the fun of fantasizing and makes the fantasy a little bit less of a fantasy and a bit more of a plan I guess.
This time I am living the fantasy, although it does not feel like one anymore. The fantasy never involves snoring roommates, painful feet and sweaty clothes. But what is nice about this trip is that I don’t really need a plan and I can make it up as I go, along the way. Yesterday I shared the hostel amongst others with a German girl, Christiane, who only has a week to do the whole route from Porto to Santiago. This means that on average she will have to walk 35 kilometres per day to make it to Santiago. Quite the contrast with my average of 16 kilometers per day. But everyone has it’s own way of doing the way I guess. I am glad that mine is just not so ambitious, or maybe it is getting a bit now?
Today has been a bit of a numbers day. Here on the central route of the Portuguese Camino there are a lot more arrows and signs indicating the way and also indicating the distance left to Santiago. Today I crossed the 200 km limit meaning that at the end of the day I only have a out 185 kilometres to go to Santiago. Something which I wouldn’t have thought after taking off my backpack yesterday at the end of the day. The feeling in my shoulders after carrying a 11 kg backpack around for 2 days was a bit preoccupying and I was kind of worried if today my shoulders would still respond. Luckily they did and in stead of doing only 15 kilometres like I had imagined I might do I almost doubled that distance. I felt my shoulders at some point but apparently reconfiguring my backpack a little bit had a positive effect.
Being able to do this also makes me enthusiastic. Apparently I am able to do more than the 16 km average which I had initially settled for. And then is where the ambition kicks in. If I go this fast then I will be in Santiago in 10 days and I will have a whole week left. So I should maybe walk further. Or maybe I can walk back. Imagination takes over and without noticing the landscape rolls by without really taking it in, thinking more about what could be and not about what is happening at the present moment. But I guess that’s OK as well. It’s just all part of the walking game but maybe to day it’s a bit more present because of all the signs on the way which make me more aware of the distance.
In the meantime I am also aware of the magical scenery of today. I am walking through a landscape of hills where small villages are intertwined with green fields and groups of eucalyptus trees. On top is a layer of low hanging clouds draped across the landscape and which continues being present all day long. A lot of the walking is done on cobble stone streets which run through and sometimes also connect the villages. The roads with small or even no sidewalks repeat themselves today. Sometimes the cars pass by at considerable speed and at a short distance. It helps keeping me present and not think too much about numbers.
If you still haven’t had enough of the number game, here are some more to sum up the day. The hostel concierge woke me up at 7 this morning to tell me that everybody had to leave the hostel by 7.30; his weekend was about to start. I drank 3 coffees with milk throughout the day. The cheapest one was 90 eurocents. I had to do a detour with about 100 altitude meters to get to the bar next to the church on the top of the hill where I took the coffee. I met 5 other pilgrims while walking today. 2 of them were walking in opposite direction. The other 3 were a group of locals who where walking a small part of the route and of which 1 of the men had visited Enschede. He named it almost without asking, strange!? I photographed 3 cats today. The hostel I sleep at tonight charges 5 euros for a bed. I did just under 29 km today and it rained during the last 2 hours of the walk. The restaurant I ate at tonight is called 2000.
