Walking Through Poo | 07/10/23 – The Adventures Of Jack

Yesterday started with Roslan packing his stuff at 5:30 in the morning. I don’t know how the others slept through it but they did. The rustling was strong in this one.

I followed him downstairs and we went outside for a ciggy. As he was about to leave Anna came out and asked if he wanted a coffee. His reply “No, I need to walk” and off he went into the sunrise. Another fleeting friendship down the drain. He is probably in Santiago now. The bloke was a machine.

Bea had made a couple of friends on the walk the day before and we were heading in the same direction so we all piled out together and started our journey to Llanes (pronounced yanes for some reason)

We had Jenny, Bea, Sandra, Chrissy, Henry and dreadlocks vegan man.

After a couple hours walking we came across some really weird geology. They were blow holes but the sea was calm so instead of water blasting out of them it just sounded like breathing. There would be this huge onrush of sound and then silence. I’ve never heard anything like it.

The whole coastline was pretty awesome to be fair.

Henry and dreadlocks vegan man had left and we never saw them again. It was now just myself and the four girls. WEEEEHEYYYY, LADS LADS LADS.

We stopped at a nice little bar and Bea showed us the local drink that was a cider that you drank by using a weird contraption.

It was nice but stressful. Apparently you are supposed to pour it and immediately drink it. Not sure why, Bea was probably just winding us up!

We got to Llanes and decided to head to the beach (obviously) and proceeded to have a nice chilled out few hours. We all decided to meet for food in the evening. We got back to our digs, showered and then head out to a fancy little restaurant to drink, eat and be merry.

We shared a Cappacho that was nearly as big as Chrissy. We actually ordered two and shared them between the four of us. The massive amount of meat combined with the stress cider made for a rather entertaining evening.

Chrissy was off for an epic walk the next day so we said our good-byes and off she went. Cue the second fleeting friendship down the pan.

When we woke up the next day my leg decided to hurt. I was now unable to brag to everyone about not having a single injury.

Lucky Sandra had some sexy compression socks and she lent me one. It helped and after that day it was fine.

The walk was supposed to be a nice little 14km but it ended up being about 22km as the albergue was shut.

There were upsides though. I got to walk through poo.

We also got to meet a donkey that quickly became my favourite thing in the entire world.

I might see if I can bring him home on my flight.

After we saw the albergue was shut we googled the next town and it showed 4km away. We were tired, it was hot and I was in pain. The thought of that ice cold beer at the end was the only thing keeping us all going.

When we got to the town and sat down we were all rather excited and did 4 rounds within about 45 minutes. Absolutely pissed after 8 hours walking, 2 liters of beer and barely any food the restaurant was calling.

We went to another very fancy place and ordered a 2kg lump of meat.

The whole evening was so much fun. A bit blurry and I knew I would pay for it the next day but sometimes the company, conversation and vibe calls for a damn good drink up.

I awoke with a jackhammer in my head. My breakfast would be painkillers and caffeine and my recovery would be a 17km walk.

Sandra was leaving us today which sucked because she is pretty awesome. It’s her own fault for having a stupid job to get back to. Another strong connection with someone who was buggering off. It would be my hat trick of friends leaving me all within two days.

We had a nice, rather hungover, walk all together before we made our decision to say bye.

As she walked off down the way surrounded by other smelly pilgrims I did feel a bit sad. But she gave me her number so if I ever miss her then I can just call her in the middle of the night and breathe heavily down the phone.