Eating Humble Pie

Today I came to realization that my thinking that I could carry my own bag each day was stupid and unrealistic. Walking from Roncesvalles to Zubiri, the only reason why I was able to make it was because I didn't have a full pack on my back. My chiropractor tried to tell me this, but I wanted to be able to carry my bag at some point. I cut my stuff to bare bones in order to make a weight I might eventually be able to walk with. Now, I'm finding that I probably cut away a bit of muscle in addition to fat.

I've been trying to ice my feet in the middle of the day at least once, and it has really been helping, along with stretching on a semi-regular basis.

At the same time, I'm also realizing that I can probably go further each day than I thought I could.... walking 22km yesterday and 18km today with soreness, but no pain due to injury has shown me that planning for only 15km a day was very conservative. I also have blisters on both of my big toes, in spite of using bandaid blister protection, but my tendons are actually doing way better than I ever could have anticipated. As long as they continue this way, I should have days that I can use for rest periodically or maybe visiting somewhere else here in Europe when I'm done.

About a half hour before I got caught up in a rain storm, I saw this sign. Side note: my poncho is never going to be sent ahead in my backpack again. I don't like pretending to be a drowned rat.

I'm actually going to use one of the rest days that I have already stored up here in Pamplona (had I have stuck with my original plan, I wouldn't have reached Pamplona until tomorrow or the next day. So, sometime while I am in Pamplona, I will see if there is a cheaper service than Jacotrans, or a discount for booking multiple days. And, I need to buy some things while here, most of which I left back at home.

My upgraded day pack, with bladder. I'm hoping the bladder will help me drink more, as I've had dehydration headaches twice so far on my trip.

What I brought with me as a day pack. The draw strings were rubbing me on the longer days.

Me and the people I've been walking with. Teresa, Marianne, and Carma are sisters from Ireland who are travelling with their cousin Martin the P (he is celebrating his 25th anniversary of ordination later this month) And Keith and Shari are a couple from Austin. Shari is walking the whole Camino and Keith will be walking here and there with her between business trips. Martin and his cousins are leaving tomorrow to go back home. We will all miss them.