Again the plan was to finish today already in Santiago, but as I hadn’t worked a rest day in, the daily grind was starting to get to my legs and bum. Especially my bum, which was getting sore from sitting hours on the hard seat.
My hotel room in Portomarin was nice, but being seven times more expensive than a refugio didn’t make me feel comfortable. The Spanish guy and his girlfriend also s
tayed over in Portomarin. They wanted to join me for dinner, but they couldn’t speak English, and I didn’t do Spanish, so we agreed to smile, shake hands, laugh at my constant stopping for coffee, and parted. It’s fine, it’s the spirit of the Camino that counts.The route starts with a long climb and I take it slow and steady this time. The road is very crowded, lots of cyclists and hikers, which together with the green, hilly scenery and the cool, misty morning weather makes it an altogether different experience than the first couple of days. Then it was hot, dry and open. At Ligonde I stop for a coffee, and when I get back on the road I catch up with the four Belgians again. I cycle a couple of km’s with one of them, and we have a nice chat. But then we split up again, as his bike is lighter (all their gear are carried in the van).
On one of the long, steep hills my gears start to give trouble. The chain doesn’t want to drop to the smallest ring at the front, which is necessary for these uphills. Sometimes it work, other times not. Then it is straight on through to Palas del Rei where you turn left onto the N547 until finally I reached Melide at noon. The idea was to stop here for the day, as Santiago is now only 50 km’s away. But the town looked a bit dodgy for me, it just didn’t have a nice atmosphere to it, and there was a big fiesta with streetparades going on, which also made the place very noisy. So I jumped on the bike and cycled on.
It was a tough last 17 km to Arzua, the next big village. The road was constantly up and down, and my legs and bum were burning like hell. Although on this last stretch there was not that much walkers as I’ve seen earlier this morning, the refugio still had a sign on it’s front door that said cyclists would only be allowed from 19:00 onwards. That is, if there is then still any room left. Not in the mood to wait that long in dirty clothes just to start looking for a new place to sleep in the middle of the night, I decided to go straight to a pensione and book myself a room.
The room as small but adequate, and I had my own shower. It would give me the perfect springboard to start tomorrow’s last stretch to Santiago.
Time on bike: 3:26
Average speed: 16,6 km/h
No comments:
Post a Comment