We walked our miles so quick today that we were able to lounge about like we were on a lazy vacay. Margo is almost ready for her first 40-miler! Too bad we don’t have 40 miles left to walk.

There was a significant enough climb out of Betanzos and the sun was due to come back after our rainy day yesterday, that we wanted to walk the bulk of it in the dark, which meant a 7am start time.

We had a quick breakfast of yogurt and instant coffee in the hostel kitchen and stepped into the street right at 7am on the dot. We were becoming a well-oiled Camino machine!

And climb we did. Soon I took off my long-sleeved layer to properly grind up the hill. And by grind I mean move my very paltry muscles at a snail’s pace. I don’t think I’ve walked 10 miles in a day at all this year, and my cardio was nil. I had been too afraid of hurting myself worse, or was sidelined by pain, but here I was, half way around the world feeling the best I had since the Camino last year. Make it make sense! To my mind it obviously meant that walking makes everything better, maybe it even resolved the new cancer starting to grow again? And then I had to remind myself of all the hiking I did leading up to getting sick in 2024: backpacking a section of the PCT, backpacking the Lost Coast Trail, backpacking in Big Bend National Park and in the Gila Wilderness. No, I probably hadn’t discovered the cure to Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer (or have I???), but I was feeling pretty good, so I can at least enjoy it while it lasts.

So up, up, up we went, until we were back in farm land where the houses were few and far between. We had planned ahead for few services on today’s stretch, but we were so used to the frequent cafes that at every cluster of houses we came to we slowed down sniffing the air for the scent of freshly baked goods and whispering “coffee, where are you? It’s ok to come out coffee, we won’t bite”  but no coffee showed up to appease our thirst.

I did, however, resolve to give Margo the trail name “Cat Eye” because she had a knack for spotting the shy furry beings that would dart out of our path to hide in a near-by bush. Many of these poor creatures looked like their tails had been in a great battle, for some were crimped up like they had been slammed in a car door, or had been sliced off altogether in an altercation with Edward the Scissorhands.

When we came to the one cafe stop of the day, we we so relieved. Both of us needed a good sit done along with our coffee and cake. The establishment gave a nod to its medieval lineage a had impressive middle ages art works and a suit of armor inside. The proprietor noticed the sword in my pack amd said, “My sword is bigger,” so of course I had to take a picture next to it to see who would win the “most fierce” award.

The walking after that was smooth and fast, and before we knew it we were at our destination for the night…a bouge ecocamp where we had rented out a whole cabin. It was new and luxurious. We each had our own rooms and bathrooms! It was early afternoon, so we basked in the sun and applied more temporary tattoos.

We had a girl dinner of olives, chips, hummus, cheese and fruit and I bemoaned our lack for foresight to pack out chocolate. The TV had Netflix too, so we settled in to watch a heartwarming period piece about a Polish surgeon who got amnesia and unknowingly preformed brain surgery on his long-lost daughter. It all ended well.