Woke up early this morning, packed my shit, had a little breakfast. Joe is slack packing today, sending his pack ahead so he doesn’t stress his leg. I need to get a early start so I have plenty of time to beg for a bed.
Word got out in the hostel that Joe is a physician and 2 different girls were asking me if I knew who the Dr was. I pointed at Joe when he came down for breakfast. I finished my coffee watching poor Joe picking at foot blisters. Told him later I was not responsible for the physician rumor, I have learned to never mention it.
Took a selfie with this dude before I left
The route today looked mostly like this
Met a bunch of new faces today. Mostly Australians.
The highlight was a French dude named Bao (Vietnamese descent) and his new buddy Roberto from Italy. They met on the trail a few days ago and are hanging out together. These two could be lifted from any long distance hike on the planet. Roberto had a giant baguette sticking out of his pack like a lightening rod, while his Bao was humping the ham and cheese.
I told them about my lodging plight. By now, I had messaged like 8 different places and nobody had responded. Bao said they couldn’t find a spot two days ago, so they laid their ground sheets down in a park and cowboy camped. In the morning, they realized it was a popular dog park and had set up on piles of dog poo. They had to scrape it off their sheets before packing. We all had a good laugh, true hiker trash. Bao emailed me a pdf from a dedicated Camino hiker who has noted good spots to camp if a hostel bed cannot be found. I am pretty sure I will be reading this sometime in the future.
My new dog shit covered friends wanted to stop in Sansol to work on their baguette. It was starting to rain harder and I didn’t want to stop. Around 12 it falling hard in surges, finally settling into a consistent soaking downpour. I had my rain jacket on over a long shirt with hiking shorts. The best part was my hat. It stayed firm in the wind and kept the the rain out of my eyes and off my back. As long as I kept moving, I was very comfortable. Damp, but comfortable.
Joe called me and said he was 3km behind, so he’d get into town at a decent time. I popped into 2 different Albergues after Sansol to see if beds were available. Both said yes….which means they don’t bother checking their WhatsApp messages. I kind of had it in my head I wanted to be a boss and hit my goal of Logrono so I kept going.
I hit the town of Viana at 3 with the intent of carrying on. Resting for a moment under a sheltered plaza, I chatted with an Australian (always Australians today) having a smoke. He told me him and a friend had been trying for hours to find a place in Logrono with no luck. It is Saturday and some kind of European holiday is being celebrated. Finally I relented, took their advice, and got a bed in the same Albergue they were in.
It was a 30km day. Honestly, I felt really good today, the extra 10k would have been a layup. However, the specter of sleeping in a wet tent on top of dog poop pushed me into stopping. A man has his limits.
