Day 5 - Easter Sunday, March 24th,

The day started well. The morning was crisp and sunny and augured well.

We all got up and got ready, heading out at about 8 AM. The idea was to stop at a bar for breakfast but, as it happened, no one else had bothered getting up that early and we had to head out without a hot drink or a fresh pastry. Oh, the life of a Pilgrim!

During the night it had snowed and there was a lovely coat of white on roofs and hillside. I had wished for snow at the start of the trip because I preferred it to rain. I had forgotten the old saying that goes something like: "careful what you wish for cause you might just get it". But that´s further down the line and off we went, leaving behind Sonia and Gonzalo and even Christine, who was spending the morning in the beautiful town before heading back to Madrid.

As with previous days, we separated as the miles passed by, some of us walking faster than others and walking along with our own thoughts. Unfortunately, most of the path followed the road and it ws not very interesting. An occasional detour into a charming little village provided a break in the scenery.

About ten kms further along Monica and Petrie caught up with me after I detoured into another village. We stopped for a late breakfast and then we headed off again, concerned about the gathering clouds and the villagers´comments regarding snow at the top of the mountain, the pass. I had been carrying a pretty heavy pack because I had brought extra things to wear (I expected a night out!) and heavier things than I needed. It seemed heavy but it did not bother me unduly or slow me down much at all. At the breakfast stop Petrie suggested wighing the damn thing and, foolisly, I followed her advice. It turned out I was carrying 13 kgs. All of a sudden it just seemed much too heavy and I lost my momentum. I was still ahead of the girls but not quite as much and my progress was slow and a bit laboured.

The miles went past and the scenery changed. I was heading up the hill and into the mountains that divede Leon from Galicia. It started to rain, then some light snow and the wind picked up. When I reached Herreira I was already at the snow line (lower this past week than much of the winter) and the scenery started taking on a lonely and forlorn air. No one passed me and I saw few cars. After passing another village I was on my own. No more cars or people to be seen. Very little visibility and more snow and wind plus a much steeper incline to add to my woes. In addition, that pack seemed to be getting heavier and heavier.

From then on it became a battle of wills. I was reluctant to risk being stuck below the summit because I didn't know how long it would take me to get down to the village where I had to catch my bus back to Madrid, and work, the following day. Each step seemed more difficult, my breathing got more ragged and I was not sure I could make it. There was no sign telling me how much further to the next village and no sign of life anywhere. I had passed La Fava and was heading to Laguna de Castilla, aboout 2.5 kms away. Those two and a half thousand metres of uphill torture seemed longer than I expected and my rest stop seemed ever further away.

Its at times like these that we draw on our hidden reserves, our hidden strengths. I sang songs like Waltzing Matilda, both the anthem and the Eric Bogle version, as well as other such national anthems and stirring tunes. Bellowing them out to the wilderness seemed to give me strength and kept me going. Another thing that helped was the fact that the poncho was pulled tight around my face and therefore I could concentrate on putting pne foot in front of the other, on step at the time. I also remembered one of the lines from "Galaxy Quest", a silly movie, a send up of the Space movies, . Repeating "Never Give up, Never Surrender" in the vein of Alan Rickman and the rest provided comic relief and inspiration in equal amounts.

I finally got to the village and found a welcoming inn, a resting place for my soaked and weary body. There was a fire in the grate, the smell of food and no one else to get in the way. I changed out of my wet clothes and spread out my things to dry. Unfortunately, I found I could not eat much at all and all I could manage to drink was the Aquarius that I hoped would restore the chemical balance of my inner liquids. Later I also managed a strong black coffee with a shot of orujo (the local aguardiente) that the owner insisted on adding in order to give me strength.

It was about then that we saw some shadows passing the fogged up windows and we raced outside to see who they were. It was two of the other travelers, two ladies from Murcia, who assured me that Monica and Ptrie were just behind them. Indeed they were. How happy I was to see them! They had a drink as well and off we headed into the whiteness. There was another forty minutes or so to go, as it turned out. We got to the top and could see nothing but some ghostly posts that gave no real indication of a track. We tried to keep to the middle of the vague suggestion of a road that some of the poles indicated. All of a sudden we heard the muffled sound of a powerful engine and some lights made faint by the blizzard. It was a great big snow plow that came to clear the road and show us the way to salvation.

All of a sudden we were thrown into a Christmas landscape. Sleighs and brightly coloured beanies, children screaming with pleasure and a adults grinning sheepishly because they did not want to seem to be enjoying themselves to much. What a change, what a difference a few feet made. We had reached our goal, we had walked about 30 kilometers, probably the hardest ones I could remember. We walked through the village admiring that winter wonderland that just a short time earlier had seemed so inhospitable and even disturbing. The hostel was big and new, it had heating and very hot showers with strong water pressure. Paradise!

After a shower and a rest we headed out to explore and to find a place for dinner. The cold I had been fending off for two days had finally caught up with me and I could not eat anything or even drink a glass of wine. I was really knackered but the girls were bearing up well in spite of the pains and bruises. I took some tablets and fell asleep rather early, hoping to recover for the morning's trek to the bus about four kms down the hill.