Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Day31: Palas de Rei to Arzua (Mon 25th Oct - I face slam the road today)




I look out the window as soon as I wake and am pleased that its not raining and looks like a clear sky! All my clothes and boots are dry and its not really that cold - I don´t need fluffy hat or gloves.

A cafe across the road for cafe con leche, fresh orange juice and toast are a familiar start to my days.  Then I realise...."OMG" Woody  has been locked in the bar....I´m finally separated from Woody, he´s been my trusty walking companion (or my 3rd leg as some would say...) for the past 3+ weeks and I can´t wait for the cafe/bar (where I stayed) to open as sometimes they don´t open until 10am or later....it is country Spain! So I regretfully have to leave him behind and ponder my last 3 days without him and am very glad there is no major mountains or hills left!!

As I overcome my sadness about Woody I´m greeted with yet another gorgeous sunrise and this is after the previous days constant drenching. I´m feeling good and want to sing "oh what a beautiful morning....oh what a beautiful day...." my walking pace is good and I´m quite chipper ;-) 6km to a town called Casanova and I look at that being my first mini stop and coffee - so I arrive to find it closed, yep still to early even on a Monday....so I continue on up the hill when all of a sudden my feet just won´t move....this all happens within seconds....as I look down with absolute bewilderment as to why they won´t move I find myself falling rapidly and am inches from face slamming the road...throw my hands out and manage to break the fall a little but with an 8kg pack on my back it only helps push me harder and faster into the road and BANG my face also now slams into the bitumen (and bounces) O U C H!!! WTF just happened....SOOO when I look down at my feet I find the funniest thing...the loop of my shoelace on my left boot had looped itself around the metal boot loop on my right boot therefore rendering me instantly "foot tied"!!!! LOL is funny after the fact...but it hurt like (///(&/$%$%% and reach down to unloop, scrape myself up off the road (lucky its a quiet early morn country road) and hobble to a stone bench on the side of the road...pull my hand away from my face and its bleeding...I have no idea how bad and I sit and feel sorry for myself and shed a few tears until I see people walking up the hill and become "Warrior woman" again...a few stop when they see me bleeding and I say oh its ok, its just surface scratches etc and the bleeding has slowed and someone who could speak english says also its just surface scratches but a nice egg on my right cheek, scratched chin and big fat egg and bruise on my left knee cap and bruised and scratched palms...!! I´m ok and laugh at the irony!

I power on in a sombre mood and look forward to the next cafe about 4km away. They don´t have ice - super!! SO thats just how it is and so I forget about it and power on to Boente where I will stop for lunch - I take my boots off and rest my feet on the chair opposite me (something everyone does) and the man in the cafe see´s and goes ballistic at me yabbering loudly in Spanish and I´m in NO mood for this and so I eyeball him and shrug my shoulders then funnily he can speak some english..."FOOTS IN BOOT" he yells...so I mumble FFS and slowly put my "foots in boots" and bang and clang the chairs and make as much noise as possible and leave without a word....!!

I´m hopeful my day gets better....LOL and arrive in Azura without realising - my head was so busy recycling my days events I had been following the yellow arrows without even realising and my destination had crept up on me: Azura I love you ;-)

Find a nice Alburgue, see some friendly and familiar faces all perplexed when they see my face...I relay my funny stories and then go shower and come back for plenty Vino Tinto....and head off for dinner and laugh about it.

1 and half days to go....

2 comments:

  1. Ouch! Scrolling thru your lovely pics...and then the egg!! Hope it's feeling better!

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  2. I got into a routine of airing my feet every 2 hours and redressing (discretely and generally sitting outside the cafes) my blisters as needed and had no problems doing this until Acerbo where there was a sign saying 'keep your boots on' Well we kept on with our routine but some of the newer pilgrims were so shocked/disgusted with our 'pilgrim stigmata' (blisters) that we went off road to dress them so as not to give offense! One of the newbies even told me how I should walk properly..... bless him. And maybe I was just like him when I arrived into St Jean Pied de Port and met up the 'old hands' who'd been on the road from Le Puy or Paris etc.
    "The old dog for the road and the pup for the gutter" LOL

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