Day 27 – El Camino – Gonzar to Melide

Gonzar to Melide, exhaustion is really starting to impact us. The early rises and the long walks are a cocktail recipe for collapse. Lucky for us, we plan for early rises and wake up late! Ha!

There were thirty three kilometres ahead of us on this day. Since we were already ahead of the book by eight kilometres, we decided to compress the last four stages into three. We would therefore arrive into Santiago a day earlier than planned (although, since we bussed through the Meseta Desert, we would have saved up five days).

A stop in the first village out of town was a welcome move, we had juice and coffee. The wind was cold and bitey, but helped to keep us cool as we marched on.

We split up the day into four parts: 1) ten kilometres; 2) twelve kilometres; 3) four kilometres; 4) seven kilometres.

Stage two felt so long, I nearly actually cried. Well, my spirit was made low when we thought we were already twelve kilometres from our destination village, Melide, but the milestone showed twenty kilometres. I ran down the hill at this point, choosing to use my anger as a source of strength.

Finally we made it into town and I was heaps far behind Matt and Sam. I caught up to a pair of Russian guys walking. We got talking as they had started their day in the same town as us, they were planning to complete their march into Santiago the same day. That was another 50 kilometres or so after Melide.

Aaron got bed bugs the night before and he was airing out his bag next to mine and Matt’s. Fuck! My bunk bed was literally joined up to his, since that was the format of the albergue. I was lucky not to have any new bites, but jesus!