The long ascent to just under 5000 feet brought us to the highest point on our journey. Frankly the Crux de Fero is a bit of an anticlimax, but some of the messages and tokens left by the pilgrims are quite touching.
The ascent may have been long and shallow but the descent to the next village 'Acebo' was steep and treacherous. Sadly my left shin decided to make itself known, to the point of bringing me to tears and the only way of descending was for me to walk backwards! Slow going indeed. We finally reached the beautiful mountain village of Acebo, where we stayed for the night as I could proceed no further.
The heat had been increasing already by the time we had arrived.
Later in the afternoon the sun had really started to get in gear.
At around 6.30pm we came across a fellow pilgrim from Belgium whom we had met the night before, and had set off at about the same time that morning. He looked quite sunburnt and in an exhausted state.
He explained that half way up the mountain he had dropped his water bottle and it had spilt the contents. He had spent the rest of the journey with no water. Due to the lateness of the hour - as few pilgrims travel during the heat of the day - he didn't encounter any other pilgrims on foot. Desperate he tried to flag down some of the pilgrims travelling by bicycle. Alas no one wanted to stop.
Eventually an older cyclist stopped and generously gave him all his water!
It was a stark reminder once again to all of us how something a simple as the availability of water can still present such a problem so quickly to those of us who are so used to surfeit in every other aspect of our lives.
TTFN
The ascent may have been long and shallow but the descent to the next village 'Acebo' was steep and treacherous. Sadly my left shin decided to make itself known, to the point of bringing me to tears and the only way of descending was for me to walk backwards! Slow going indeed. We finally reached the beautiful mountain village of Acebo, where we stayed for the night as I could proceed no further.
The heat had been increasing already by the time we had arrived.
Later in the afternoon the sun had really started to get in gear.
At around 6.30pm we came across a fellow pilgrim from Belgium whom we had met the night before, and had set off at about the same time that morning. He looked quite sunburnt and in an exhausted state.
He explained that half way up the mountain he had dropped his water bottle and it had spilt the contents. He had spent the rest of the journey with no water. Due to the lateness of the hour - as few pilgrims travel during the heat of the day - he didn't encounter any other pilgrims on foot. Desperate he tried to flag down some of the pilgrims travelling by bicycle. Alas no one wanted to stop.
Eventually an older cyclist stopped and generously gave him all his water!
It was a stark reminder once again to all of us how something a simple as the availability of water can still present such a problem so quickly to those of us who are so used to surfeit in every other aspect of our lives.
TTFN
1 comment:
Walking backwards hey? Hummm... I should be able to think of something funny, michael jackson related, but it escapes me with such little time to think. Well done to both of you! You could resolve the snoring issue by swapping your earplugs with a nose plug - or a boulder...?
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