Betanzos to Hospital de Bruma - June 4

 The big one!


No, no, no. Please settle down at the back. It’s not a Big Mac, Whopper or any other  large item. Today was the toughest looking day of this particular Camino. Twenty-five kilometres, 2275 feet of ascent, and not a lot of descent. And yes, it lived up to expectations. Tomorrow presents a similar distance, but the broader trajectory is downhill. Three lovely blisters have appeared today, so if all goes badly you might be treated to a bonus edition of Burbuja Mondo. Northern Spain’s biggest selling blister related periodical…..complete with photos!


Up at six, and out onto the quiet streets of Betanzos at seven. Except they weren’t quiet. Clearly the local nightclub had just disgorged several hundred rowdy, inebriated youths out into the cold half light. They weren’t a pretty sight, and certainly were doing their best to wake up the rest of the town. Within 15 minutes we’d left them behind as we began our first climb of the day. Just under 500 feet over just a mile. Steeper than the price of a season ticket in Fulham’s new Riverside Stand. Believe me, they are really steep, at an average of £2000 for 19 matches.



Conditions for the first 3 hours were typically Galician - low cloud and mist hugging the verdant hills and forests. Arguably rather dull, but perfect for slogging up hills. We barely saw any other “Griños” until our first coffee stop after 12 hard won kilometres. A long break was in order, and it wasn’t long before the Venezia Violets turned up. We later discovered that they are 3 sisters. None of whom speak any English. The Damen aus Darmstadt were already in position, but with no obvious towels on the sun-loungers. And to complete the set of people who we had briefly spoken with so far on this Camino; a young Danish girl arrived, and sat next to us. She’s the only one of that exclusive group of Griños who speaks good English - arguably better than us! We met her again at another pit stop later, just short of journey’s end. We have established that she lives in Copenhagen, and her parents have just got a new puppy, but as yet we have not yet got as far as names. That would be rushing things!






As for the walking today, it was very rural indeed. We we passed through several hamlets that were positively comatose, except of course for the horribly aggressive and noisy dogs that seem to inhabit every house in rural Spain.






That’s about it really. A really tough day of walking, but we are now just over 40k from Santiago. It may have been tough today, but there was an absence of “tetchy”, and that is no bad thing.



“How was your walk today?” Electric darlings”😅

Postscript- we sat with the Damen aus Darmstadt for dinner tonight. Not the easiest of conversations as Edith spoke no English, and Chris spoke a bit, but nowhere near the standard of most Germans. Irrespective of that, we learnt that they had done lots of caminos. The most impressive of which was the 1000k Via de la Plata from Seville to Santiago. Respect! Or as Ali G would say Restecp.



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