Eight Phase: O Cadavo - Lugo 30,24 KM

Monday, June 2nd, 2014

First milestone of the 5 of us together

The day started a little different than all previous days because instead of 3, we were 5. The night before we were discussing about whether it was a good idea for my mom and my aunt to start in Castroverde to do only 22 kilometers, but my mom and aunt were completely motivated and wanted to do it from the begining with us.

We were all on the way at 06h30, we enjoyed the weather, there was no rain and the sounds of the animals and the views were very nice. We reached Castroverde with almost no problems at 8h30 and we had our usual breakfast together.

The sun came up early and bright, we were happy about it because the previous days we saw a lot of rain, but we didn't know how dangerous is a warm day when you need to be walking for the next 9 hours.

There was a lot of walking in the secondary highway, so the asphalt made it worse to walk under the sun.

We had half an hour pause every 3 hours and everything was working fine until we saw the sign to Lugo with the last 8 kilometers.  We had to walk on a highway with no protection of the sun and the asphalt burning under our shoes and the mood and pace of the group started going down.

My husband had to leave us because the sun was so strong that he had to go into his normal pace to reach a place to offer some shade to Emilia that was very impatient about being on the stroller.

I stayed with my mom and aunt, we were tired with not much water and the last 2 kilometers before Lugo were hell, it was a very respectable uphill, under the sun, so the last 2 kilometers took more than an hour.

When we finally reached the hotel, all three of us were so tired we couldn't move anymore and for my aunt the intial 30 kilometers were too much; we took the wrong decision and that meant for my aunt to give up because she got dehidrated from the heat and her muscles were all contracted, she could not really move.

We arrived to Lugo at around 17h30 with the sun still very strong... what a day 11 hours of walking.

My mom did well, I am very proud of both of them, they both do exercise regularly but walking 30 kilometers is completely in another league.

I felt very bad about my aunt, since I have more experience I should have pushed more for her to join in Castroverde, but sometimes things are like they are.

Lugo is such a beautiful city, I would like to go and stay a couple of days ... this time I could not move more than just to eat... the heat and the kilometers on the highway were too much for my legs.

My husband on the other hand is my personal hero: he went ahead, and pushed the stroller alone for the last 8 kilometers, and the last uphill he did it alone and he was tired but fine...


When going to eat we started joking with my mom about how healthy we were... we could not even stand up without hugging the table and showing our pain.

Log of the day:

05h00 - 06h20 - Wake up and preparation
06h20 - 08h30 - Walk to Castroverde
08h30 - 09h30 - Breakfast pause
09h30 - 12h30 - Walk to La Cantera
12h30 - 13h00 - Pause for lunch
13h00 - 15h00 - Walk to La Vina
15h00 - 15h30 - Pause
15h30 - 17h30 - Walk to Lugo

Hotel we stayed in Lugo:
Exe Puerta San Pedro - it was a normal hotel where the receptionist told my mom that she would never do the Camino because she receives the Piligrims and she has seen in which shape they arrive

Next stop Ponteferreira....

8 kilometers to go... we are still fine