To Grandes de Salime

After a good night’s sleep, we hit the Camino this morning to clear skies and cool weather. After climbing for about an hour, we reached a point where we could see over a great expanse of distant hills with fog like a layer of water lying in the valley bottoms. There were even “islands” sticking up through the clouds. In the foreground were cattle grazing, the Gallega breed found almost exclusively in the north of Spain. They are a mixed breed, useful for milk as well as beef. Most of them have cow bells and, as they are grazing, a wide range of bells provide delightful background music, one of the sounds I will forever associate with the Camino.

This is our sixth day on the Primativo and not only our walking strength and speed is improving but our ability to stay in the moment is increasing, as our senses become more acutely aware of our surroundings. We are hearing the bird songs around us, feeling the cool touch of the breeze and enjoying the alternating sun and shade.

We had a long downhill stretch today where we had to focus on picking our way along the rocky trail. On these downhill sections, our feet slide forward in our trail runners, pressing our big toes against the front of the shoes, making them quite sore. I have come to the conclusion that proper hiking boots eould probably work better on the Primitivo whete the trails are rougher and the downhills steeper. Nonetheless we reached Grandes de Salimes by 3:00 after a 20 km walk. It gave us time to hand wash our clothes and hang them in the dun to dry. Not a bad day.

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