Day 3 of my mild cold!

I hadn’t recorded it before now because I was in denial, but after 4 doses of the effervescent vitamin C + zinc dissolvable tablets that I avoid with vigor while in the US, it is fact. Ivy has been very patient with my sniffles, and as far as colds go, I’m not terribly uncomfortable (except when drinking the weird bubbly juice or when panting heavily while hiking uphill).

I was in denial of other things as well: pretty sure I had a blister on my middle toe last night. 😢 First one! A needle and thread and some tape took all the discomfort away and the toe handled 35 km today (20+ miles) valiantly. The rest of my foot was not too happy with me for the last 10-15 km, but we’ve reached a truce of only mild aching after sitting in the warm sunshine for 45 minutes and some extra foot/calf massaging.

This morning started with a hair dryer.

As I’ve mentioned, I typically wash liner socks daily and wool socks every second day. Due to my blister-toe yesterday, I replaced both the liner and the wool socks to make sure my foot was as dry as possible to avoid blister worsening. This meant that I had no clean socks to put on at the albergue. My liners were not dry by morning, so there I was, blow drying my socks at 630 am. Only the second place we’ve had a blow dryer!

Then I made Ivy chase me for 7-8 km. I took a bush stop, and when I emerged, I couldn’t see her. I assumed that she had gone ahead, so I turned on the afterburners to catch her. I reached a restaurant in Vilaserío and messaged her I was stopping for a bocadillo; she showed up 5 minutes later and informed me of her chase. Whoops! Sorry, Ivy. We walked together the rest of the day.

We’d planned to stop in Ponte Oliveira at a donativo albergue, and gutted out the last couple hours, joyous to finally see the building. As we drew closer, however, we noticed signs of disrepair, then “Cerrado” scrawled on the entry. We lifted our packs again to continue 2 km further to the municipal albergue, where we claimed a few of the last beds before it filled.

Now, showered, sunbaked, stretched, and achy, it’s time to find some grub. We’re ramping up for another long day tomorrow, but it ends at the beach! 👍