We weren’t quite sure what we we in store for when we started the hike this morning. We started late as I couldn’t find my hat and I think it is gone forever. I think it fell out of my pack walking to the hotel yesterday afternoon. The walk was uphill steadily for the 15km with some shorter areas of slight downhill. Even though the guide said that it was a moderate 25.6 km, it turned out to be the most physically demanding walk of the Camino so far. Worse even than the first day over the Pyrenees, which most people consider the most difficult day.
After seeing the snow capped mountains in the distance for the last five days, we finally caught up to them and passed them. We reached one of the most important milestones on the walk, the Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross), around the 8km mark and then hit a downhill stretch and then another uphill stretch to the 15km mark. That’s when things got very hard.
At the 15km, the elevation dropped quickly. We went from an elevation of 1500 meters to 500 meters over the last 10km. Most of it was on extremely rocky trails with high temperatures and not a cloud in the sky. Our legs and feet were on fire all of the way down. I was never so happy to stop walking. I will load up on Ibuprofen tonight and Volteran gel for my hip. Tomorrow is a relatively flat 20 km that will test my body’s recovery ability.
Some pics from today:
