Day 4, October 1 - the incidents

What an amazing day, the lazy pilgrims only started our day at 8:15 - can you imagine!  Tried to find an open coffee shop - no luck, so we just walked out way out of the city of Ponferrada and on our way again.  Today's hike was pretty incredible - walking through the orchards and vineyards only 25.31 km - a breeze compared to yesterday.  We walked in a very chilly morning and fog...in fact we did not disrobe (take of any layers) until close to noon.  The apples, lemons, tomatoes, walnuts, figs, plums, pears and then the vineyards....the concord grapes off the vine were absolutelyl delicious....many of us need to repent again.  Can you imagine being surrounded by all of this and being able to feast on all this fresh fruit and produce.  The squash, pumpkins and zucchini were huge.  The landscape of rolling hills and side hills with rows and rows of grapes were so incredible to see - it looked like pictures, there is no way that our photography can capture the beauty of what we saw.  Despite the rolling contour of the land, the ups and downs, the beauty of the view made todays' journey somehow "just a walk in the fields".  I have to say again, the concord grapes were so delicious and sweet - just devine - alas I need to repent again!

However, today's journey was not without its mishaps.  To start with, a faceplant in the middle of a busy highway - (name withheld to protect the colleague impacted (not me)) taught us a valuable lesson...keep one eye on the ground and one on the pathway ahead, not sure that this would have helped, though.  We are glad to report, there was no serious injury and only a few blood drops were left on the thoroughfare.  We are usually jaywalking, but this time we actually waited for the light to turn green, thankfully.  Secondly, walking this length of distance encourages us to have frequent rest stops along the way, usually in the villages we walk through.  Today was no exception.  As we stopped for a lunch break, many decided to remove their footwear and air their toes.  Others, proceeded to walk barefoot in the one grassy spot in the entire village only to find out that dogs also enjoyed the green grass and left evidence of their enjoyment.  Unfortunately, this evidence ended up on the bottom of the barefoot of some unsuspecting colleague....oh yuck!!!!  Oh well, nothing that our rolls of toilet tissue in our knapsack and handsantizer couldn't fix.  Lastly, our colleague, who decided to take a bus for the last part of journey, was unable to locate our accommodations - this is only a town of 3500.  She made about an extra 9 km walking up and down the streets, asking everyone she met where this place was, even using her google translation off her iphone which did not help her.  We were finally able to find her in the plaza, enjoying a beverage with her new found Irish friend, about an hour after we arrived.  Good news, we all survived the day and enjoyed a menu de dia (menu of the day for pilgrims) with each other as we recounted the day.  Oh - we are so blessed to have experienced the beauty of the day and enjoy the fruits of the season!  Tomorrow should only be about 20 km, however, I would suspect it will end up to be closed to 25.  So far, in 4 days, we have walked 112.68 km.  We will all need new hiking shoes soon.  Chow for now, Sandy