Dear readers, if today's offering is a little lacking it's because the Entente Cordiale team made a world record attempt for the Camino Frances, for two pensioners, on the 3rd of November, to walk 50 km from Villafranca, climbing out of Castile y Leon into Galicia on some seriously severe gradients ... with mutual encouragement, a good pace and enough short stops for rest and refreshment the bar was set at 11.5 hours ... we await challengers. ..
This includes your writer conversing mostly in French, since Robert, despite being an anglophile whose business, a holiday village in Brittany, had many English visitors, has never learned the language ... he used to joke with the customers that the 100 year war was not yet over ... when it was he would learn it.
Starting early is vital on such a day ... actually, starting early is good every day ... we were on the road at 6.50 am well before the Sun was up and on flat roads with a good pace we made the 11 km to breakfast by 8.30 ... picking up a limping young Englishman on the way ... Aaron from New Cross via Suffolk, was loving the walk, but suffering with blisters ... we abandoned him with his mentor, Hans-Peter, a Swiss-Australian, at the bar ... no room for passengers today ... on another two hours, another coffee at the foot of the climb, meeting Dorian, a young German, playing the ukele to encourage the pilgrims upwards ... lovely bloke with a request to stop smoking ... he assures us he will see us again, as he moves fast ... which he duly does at the next stop, this time for shandy before the too touristy O Cebreiro .... a brief chat with Larry, Larry and Mary, Alaskan family, who share a joke about their infamous politician, Sarah Palin ... she got the mine, we got the shaft ... and so we are on track for Triacastela, though not wedded to it ... the day is fine and tomorrow's forecast is for rain ... last time the whole day was walked in cloud ... though Ruitelan was the starting point then ... despite the pace there is time to admire the views, even take a few photos for you ... if you like landscapes there are plenty of pics from better photographers to see ... we stop to rest and chat with Manuel from Switzerland, whose limit is 35 km ... knees and Achilles tendons suffering after that. .. on for a last shandy and cake and the choice of stopping at 3.30 or going the final 14 km, now mostly level or downhill ... since we can arrive before the Sun sets, we go for it, arriving at 6.20, completely knackered and rather pleased with ourselves. Another shared room is found, a good menu del dia for supper, and two tired pensioners, one already asleep, the other dutifully completing the blog for your entertainment ...
Tomorrow? Maybe a storm for an hour or two, but Sarria certainly possible ...
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