Day 8 – way to destroy a girl

Renay Weir
Sep 11, 2017
4 min read

day 8 – Lagroña to Azofra, 37.5km, 11hours.

Yesterday was the toughest day on the camino so far. Maybe cause its day 8 and weve walked close to 200km. Maybe cause i finally have blisters on my toes, in between my toes, on my soles and on my heels. Or maybe it was cause we had walked 30km the previous day and knew we had to walk another 30km today. Except we didnt walk 30km. We walked 38km! Nothing is more soul destroying then walking all day in the scorching sun, blisters, carrying a pack, getting so excited with the 1km to go sign ,arriving into the town and finding out every albergue and hotel is full. Everything. We all kind of just sat outside the full albergue in despair contemplating a night in the park or moving on to the next town 6.5km away. I had nothing left in me! I could hardly walk but when the option of catching a taxi or walking came up. There was no choice. We put our packs on and headed off again into the hot afternlln sun. The scenery was beautiful those, red hills, vineyards everywhere. the last 6km was just on a small road between villages of which i begrudgingly dragged my feet every metre of the way! Why was i doing this to my self!?!? Its funny because the people you are walking with, were complete strangers 1 week ago and now theyre witnessing you throw a good tantrum and damn near cry. But do they care? No. Do they judge? no. Helmutt offers me his last energy bar, raph stops with his arms wide open and waits for me to reach him to give me a big hug, then amps you up and walks holding your hand to make you push on. We finally, just after 6pm (11hrs of walking and one near vomit break) stroll into the albergue and all just drop everything, sitting in silence. Staring at the floor. Wrecked. –/–

Jess and i set off just before 7, trying to find the shells on the ground and yellow markers in the dark. It was eerie walking through the city in the dark, just a soft yellow glow from the street lights, no one was around and every so often some cool street art would catch your eye. We struck gold at the one coffee shop that was open. The best coffee in spain yet! We sat at the counter in front of a the pastries, trying to converse with another spanish guy we keep bumping into. We then hit the road. I put music on today and just walked out of the city on my own. The rest not far behind. Theres such a sense of freedom wandering around a city thats still ‘asleep’. You arent distracted by the people, so you really notice the buildings. The high rise apartments, the architecture, the cars, the flowers growing on peoples balconies, and all thats in the shop windows. The mornings walk out of Lagroña was long about 10km really till we were out. We passed a big lake with heaps of carp swimming on the edges, next to it a pine forest with brown squirrels (squir-rels – haha jared) running all around. Its interesting 8 days in, as people start to disperse, the people youve met along the way or started with have either gone further ahead or are back a bit. And its mainly the older ones. Ive lost my Blue Man! Ive also lost lovely irish Sermus (but ive got his number so will keep in touch), my adopted aussie dads stopped in pamplona and hired a car to complete most of the trip (jealous), but the ones ive met my age are all still around. Which is such a relief because when youve had enough walking there is always someone to talk to and distract you. We all keep in touch over texts to so everyones always on hand.

Yesterday, Helmutt, Raph, Shay and i stopped and sat in a vineyard for a lunch break, availing ourselves of the most delicious grapes. We took a 1km detour also for beer. At the time it was the best choice but that was b4 we knew we had another 5 hrs of walking to do. The 4 of us walked, singing together, telling jokes and then came across a spanish man playing a guitar in the middle of nowhere so we stopped and gave him some coins.

I dont have too much else to say about yesterday other than it being a complete rollercoaster day of emotions and that i never want to walk another 38km in one day again. But then you shower and you get such a sense of accomplishment and pride that everything seems ok again. We walked to a restaurant for dinner and of course it was the towns fiesta! See theres always a silver lining. There was dancing in the square, Marquette was set up as a makeshift bar/club. And that fiesta went all night! There were fireworks in the early morning and as we set off today to party was still going.! But back to dinner, we got the pilgrims menu which for 10 euro is a 3 course meal with a bottle of water and wine included. So cheap. Sergio (really getting on my nerves 😉 ) anna, and emanuele also turned up at the restaurant so sat with them for a bit, until i nearly fell asleep at the table and went home. Nils’ 20th birthday today so he cooked us all pancakes with nutella for us to have on the road the next morning! So good! I hopped into bed last night with every part of me aching. Cant believe ive swapped perfume and now just lather myself in deep heat (note to self dont try and put deep heat on in a sleeping bag in the dark! There are places it should not go, on blisters one of them) I may complain about the day but it was still pretty darn amazing! R x