The eternal pine forest suddenly looked so much better from amongst the grass

 Belorados to San Juan de Ortego, 25km

Am very proud of the posse for this morning’s efforts – everyone was having a tough morning for one reason or another – no sleep, bad news from home, the continuing saga of the knee … you name it, my compadres have had good reason to complain today, and yet – aside from a few tears – they soldiered on. 

All I had to worry about was the continual moaning from my feet. Think I have made mental progress today in that I have managed to separate the normal low level of below-the-ankle complaint that seems normal for most pilgrims from the type of pain that actually means something is wrong with. Thankfully today has mostly been the former, so I have been pretty focused on the ‘man up and get on with it’ mantra. 

That was until this afternoon when we hit the road to hell – 9kms of forestry access road through a pine forest that I swear was actually 42kms.  It was nice enough scenery compared to yesterday’s hike beside the highway, but it just seemed to go on forever … and then some.  Really tough mentally when there is nothing new to look at for hours on end. 

At the point where we hit a 2km to go sign (the first indication of distance for what felt like 100 miles) I finally called it and Daphne, Gonzalo and I lay supine under some pine trees for half an hour chillaxing while Silvana powered on to whatever musical Gatorade she had going on the iPod. 

The funny thing was that the same pine forest that had been the bane of our existence while we were trying to push through it suddenly became the highlight  of the day – sun-drenched pine trees with tiny birds hopping around, blue skies above and an enormous eagle riding the wind currents. And absolute silence broken only by a gust of wind or the sound of a bird. What’s not to love? 

I have been very quick to turn everything that happens on the camino into a cliched lesson in life – a shortcut that doesn’t pan out (ohh, there is no easy way to get what you want), a missed sign resulting in a longer route (yep, I need to be more detail oriented) … blah, blah, blah. But there really was something in that little break – just a shift in perspective and the forest we were struggling to get through was suddenly something beautiful to savour. Not sure if the lesson is to slow down and smell the roses or if it is more of an always look on the bright side of life kind of message, but whatever the case I am hoping that moment is something I can hold onto when I am back in the real world. 

not sure why Gonzalo isn’t smiling with such a genius lunch – red wine and a chocolate sandwich

 We have obviously had some mental energy to burn so have been killing time by teaching each other random phrases in different languages . After a failed attempt at being a Spanish teacher which resulted in Silvana adopting the phrase ‘mucho mas or menos’ (very more or less), today our lesson has been in German. I am pleased to report that I am now fluent in the sentence ‘Ich liebe es meine sandalen mit socken zu tragen’ which roughly translates to: I love to wear socks with my sandals – a phrase I have been keen to roll out to every German we have come across, just to show them I understand the heart of the German culture (if any of my German friends are reading this, please no hate mail!)