34km. 51,135 steps.
We woke early and left by 0630. There was a light rain in the morning, but I was still able to capture many flowers with my DSLR. The walk was dominated by agriculture today, bountiful tomato fields, enormous orange orchards, stands of grapes to the horizon.
At the 10k mark we stopped at a Cafe to celebrate the small victories, partial though they may be. Two coffees, a meal of local bread combined with yesterday's groceries. The late start group soon caught up with us and joined us at the Cafe. W shared some oranges that I had offered from an or hard we passed, and all agreed they were the best oranges in Earth. After the snack Sasha abandoned us for his new social group, asserting his independence and complaining that N and I are too slow. To be honest, I'm too slow, as Nataliia is kind enough to hang back with me at my 4kph pace.
We encountered a small herd of horned cows along the side of the road, standing there chewing the cud, wondering why silly humans would choose to walk when standing still was also an option. There was a herd of wild dogs, perhaps a dozen, who kept a wide berth from unknown humans. I had forgotten to mention that yesterday we encountered the most darling little hedgehog in the early morning, no more than a step away, who seemed barely bothered by our admiration.
Wildflowers abound today, and I was thankful that the sun came out around ten and I was able to photograph over a dozen. I know not their names, but their shapes vary and their colors are vibrant and pure. Someday my mother will help with this, I'm sure. She knows such lore.
Our two groups - N and I, and S with the rest of the pilgrims, had lunch in the same village only a few meters apart, but neither party realised the other was so close. After lunch was a long boardwalk along a river, passing by several beaches which called to us, but we had not the time to visit. We passed a group of school kids at camp who had just returned from a swim, which made marching onward in the summer sun so much harder.
After the boardwalk the reality of the final 10k began to sink in. We felt each step, each shift in the road surface, each ounce in our packs. We had filled our water bags with ice at lunch, and were grateful for the cool draughts. In 10k I finished three liters.
At about 5k Nataliia turned on the music, 500 miles, which I followed with my rock out playlist, and this made the time and distance pass more quickly. The final 2k is all uphill into town which was easier than expected, now that we were close enough to smell dinner and feel the bedsheets.
It’s actually pretty good
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