Day forty two, El Camino

12.75 miles in the P O U R I N G rain. The walk from Olveiroa to Cee was probably the prettiest and through the wildest country we have experienced, but that beauty could not be enjoyed to the fullest as we tried, in vain, to fight off the pelting, windy, blowing, hard rain. It blew from the front and from the side and from the back. It blew in your face and up your arms. You plod on. Tanya's boots are soaked. Ian's pack cover is full of water. Water is trickling through the water proof pants. It is a heavy, heavy rain, and the path is stony and tricky to navigate.

We arrive at Hotel Larry dripping and drenched. Everything is wet--not only clothes, but train and plane tickets, and other papers, everything right into the deepest sections of the pack. The question is, "Will it all dry by tomorrow?"

Fortunately, our suitcases beat us here, so we change into dry things and go to the hotel's restaurant for lunch--it is now almost 2:00. After a large bowl of hot and surprisingly tasty chicken vegetable soup, the wet clothes and papers get their due attention. Stuff the boots with toilet paper, borrow Tanya's hair dryer to dry the papers (it works to that end), roll everything in towels that can be rolled in towels and stomp on them to get out as much water as possible. Search for the plastic bags, which should have been used, but weren't, to keep the necessities dry for tomorrow's walk. NEVER AGAIN will I go without dry sacks for everything in the pack!

But you know what? Despite the weather, it was great to be out in it! And at least it wasn't freezing out; that makes a huge difference.

Only one photo today, taken just as we set out at 8:15 a.m.:



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Location:Olveiroa to Cee