67 to go! (Day 32)

Last night at Portomarin we had dinner looking over the river and Amy was able to capture the below photo. I was rather impressed as she usually doesn’t execute well on photos.

Just before dinner, Amy also captured the below photo of me and Jeff. He has become a great friend and mentor over the last month for me and he will be one of the main parts of my Camino that I will miss. I also think I look a million in this photo! Very coquette.

Camino experience has definitely changed since we arrived to Sarria. There is about 500+ pilgrims walking The Way on the same stages as us now. In the Meseta it was about 30-40. Therefore, this morning many of us from the cohort of April 1st left really early to beat the crowds. Amy and I were out on the trail by 6:20am and walked the first 40 minutes or so in the dark. Took the below two photos around sunrise.

Amy looks rather unhappy in the photo. She was probably either cold or didn’t like my morning jokes or very likely both at the same time. The first two hours after the sunrise it was raining. Hard to say we both enjoyed it. I certainly didn’t. But after the first two hours the weather cleared that allowed for a fun walk with Jeff and Merel (Dutch girl who is a body building champion) for the rest of the day. Merel is someone who has taught me to question my instincts on people. When I first met her a month ago, I immediately told myself that she and I wouldn’t click. But over the last month, as I got to know her, I enjoyed her company more and more everyday. She has an incredible story in her life and has also become someone I admire and like on the Camino.

We are now only 67 kms from Santiago. While one side of me wants the journey to be completed, so I can go back to my girls and comforts of modern life; the other side of me wishes we had another “1” in front of the 67. Today, as a group we decided that we will walk the last 5kms together with our April 1st cohort on the 5th. I am pretty sure, I will be very emotional when we all meet 5kms before and do the last hour together. I am excited and also nervous about that moment.

Kms today: 25.5 kms

Kms total: 756 kms

Steps total: 268k Amy, 1032k Ahmet

Photos from the day: