Choices, Angels, and Fools

Today's walk gave us two choices for routes to follow. Choice 1 was a walk along a flatter route to see a monastery but that choice was 6.4 k longer. Choice 2 was shorter but meant going over another mountain. We decided to take choice 2 and that meant another climb and then the dreaded descent! Perhaps we are getting stronger but it didn't seem too bad today and we covered 12 miles in about five hours. We are now in Sarria which is where many people join the walk because if you walk the last 100k to Santiago you can get the certificate verifying that you completed to Camino de Santiago. We have been forewarned that it will be much more crowded now.

Before we started this walk I had read about angels on the Camino and today we came upon one. In the middle of nowhere we came upon a house and in the side yard there were tables set up with juice, fruit, coffee, tea, water, cookies etc. everything was there for the pilgrims at no cost. People did leave donations but it was not done expecting payment. There is so much kindness shown in this walk it is very inspiring.

Now to the fools! The weather report for today called for sunshine, 65 degrees and zero chance of rain. I suggested we wear shorts since it was going to be so nice. Charlie even put on sunscreen because he thought he might get a sunburn. Well, I don't think the temperature ever got above 50 and the fog was so thick you could not see 50 yards ahead of you. There was no fear of sunburn and we were freezing. We were the only fools hiking in shorts. Because of the fog we saw absolutely nothing. The cowbells let us know we were passing by farms and as usual the roosters made a terrible ruckus. By the time we arrived our knees were blue but we were 12 miles closer to Santiago!