I awoke early, and headed over to the cafe for breakfast with a fine mist falling. Breakfast was simple -tea, toast and fresh squeezed orange juice. Today was 34k, another long day but one filled with great things. For someone living in Arizona, seeing water is a great thing.
The dam wasn't big, but it looked like a great place to take a leap off a cliff into... okay...okay... it looked like a great place to watch someone else take a leap off a cliff.
The river had that, "I'm full of fish, and here for the takin' Steve!!"... Luckily, I know better and can hear what they are really saying. "You don't gotta no chance, Amos!" and so I gave up the thought of turning one of my walking sticks into a cane pole and going fishing. Gotta keep my eyes on the prize. If I stayed strong, I would be walking into Finisterre by about 5:00.
Clouds were getting thicker and the mist became heavy with water. I could hear the "Whump Whump Whump" of the windmills and they lined the way. It's so strange to walk 30k and look back at windmills that you saw in the morning. Those buggers can walk!!
I had been hiking for 5 or 6 hours when I came across two women sitting on the top of the hill/mountain. ( It's a hill if you are walking down and a mountain if you are walking up!) The older woman, Nudia, was from the Canary Islands and the younger woman, Anastasia, was originally from Russia and is Nudia's daughter in law. Anastasia was doubled over with severe stomach problems. I gave her some of my water and she felt good enough to walk. I really felt like she needed a carbonated drink, like Coca Cola or Sprite. But since they don't have vending machines on top of the mountain... I told them to walk slowly down and I would go get a drink and bring it back up the mountain. They laughed because our language barrier was great. They thought I was leaving so they said good bye.
I went down the hill, found a albergue, bought three drinks, left my pack, and walked "briskly" back up the mountain. They were shocked as they saw me back on the mountain. Anna was taking a picture of the mountain/ocean view and captured me coming up the trail. This is where we met up in a field of heather-like flowers. The three of us sat overlooking the ocean.
Our first views of the ocean were like a pump of life. To see the water was emotional, not because I really get off on oceans, but it was very near the end of the trail. Swimming to America was not in my plan.
The next views were of the town of Cee and Corbubion. Cee is more industrial and Corbubion is much more of a tourist town, complete with nice white beach. I could smell the salt. I could taste the seafood! I would be in Finisterre in a few hours.
Ahhhh.... but the fly in the ointment. Nudia's other daughter, Elena, who is a stewardess for UAE, had hurt hurt knee on a mountain the day before and had to take a taxi from Negeria to the hospital in Cee. She was waiting for them in the hospital.
On the way there we met a Venezuelan woman, Wilma, who also spoke Russian and is an interpreter. She came along with us as we headed off to Finisterre. We all realized that we had not eaten all day and decided to eat at a restaurant that Wilma knew about.
Nothing is done quickly when it comes to eating and we sat there for about 3 hours. Yes, three hours!! But it was great food and great conversation. As we left I saw some men playing a card game called "Mus", which I could not understand and they could not explain. They did say it was the most popular game in Spain...which doesn't explain why it's the first time I've seen it played!
But now it was 5:30 pm and we knew that it was still 14k to Finisterre. No way. Finisterre would be packed and we would not be able to find a room or a bed in an albergue, so we got a room in a albergue on the Cee/Corbubion border. Not bad views for 10E! Great room, drunk landlord. More on that later.
Once we had a room we went for a long walk along the bay and then down to the beach. The beach wasn't great, (think Daytona...NOT), but it was water.
Anastasia liked having her picture taken with these classic "poses" like vogueing. It must be the way things are done in Eastern Europe because it wasn't the first time I had taken a picture of an Eastern European who vogued.
The bay and the clouds were gorgeous and it was fun just to stop walking and relax.
How drunk was he?? We had just gotten into our beds and he staggered in the room, woke everyone up by yelling! Now if my room is right on the bay, which it was, and a man comes in the bedroom and yells at 11:00, which he did, I'm assuming there's a fire or a ship has crashed into our building. But what he was saying was, "Hey! Go downstairs! The cafe is giving free bbq'd meat away. Go! Go! So we got up and went downstairs and had a beer and bbq'd ribs. Very very good.
