Kim - The Big Climb Day Oct 4
Good morning from Combarro! It's a great day for a big climb!
Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery of why we climb.— Marjorie McCloy
Today we got up knowing we were about to tackle our toughest day - only 8.5 miles, but some of the steepest climbs up and down of our whole journey - an elevation gain of 455m or just under 1500ft. Because of this we became a party of 3 and Dad took a much needed rest day and taxi ride to our next town. Our thighs burned, we put one foot in front of the other, and we made it! We experienced our first trail magic, enjoyed stunning vistas, picnicked on the side of the path for lunch, saw free range horses all along the mountain portion, and bent a hiking pole on the descent back down.
We met up with Bill and John, our trail friends from Ohio and finished today's walk together, which made the toughest part go by much faster. We met them at our lunch stop yesterday and ran into them again halfway through today. It's a crazy small world - Bill graduated from Notre Dame and so did 2 of his kids, a 3rd kid went to Saint Vincent College too! Needless to say, we had a lot to talk about all the way down the mountain. Go Irish! ☘️
Trail friends along the Camino
It seemed odd getting to our hotel so early today at 330 instead of our usual 6-7 pm, but we relaxed and soaked in every extra minute of rest time - especially since today was a "take your shoes off in the hotel lobby" kind of day!
This evening we had the privilege of attending vesper and the peregrino blessing at the Monastery on top of the mountain that we climbed today.
Then we enjoyed dinner next door and I finally got to try the pulpo (Octopus), a local favorite dish
