Day 5 - October 6th

Today was beautiful with near clear skys and temperatures around 25 - great
for hiking. We covered 23.5 kms from Trebadelo to Hospital Da Contesa. We
started at the floor of a valley between two ridges, and worked our way up
over 2,200 ft to high pass and down into another system of valleys. The
photo is taken near the top of the pass looking back towards from were we
came. What is in view represents less than half our vertical climb.
Trebadelo is hidden behind ridges.

Walking uphill today was fine - as was walking flat. For some reason,
walking downhill was very painful below the knees on the front shins. I'm
taking Advil every 4 hours to see if that helps, and I applied a cream Ted
has. Hopefully it will work.

We had a blister discussion with various Canadians at a bar half way up our
climb today, and there was no agreement on the best method to treat them.
According to one person, the Spanish medical community feels it is best not
to drain a blister. Medical communities in other countries appear to
differ. All I know is that I have done nothing but cover mine, and they
appear to be doing much better today - all of them - even after a tough 23.5
kms.

On the weather front, Ted has not walked in rain during any of his 28 days
on the Camino, or stated another way, in over 500 kms of walking. The
weather is very unusual according to our inn keepers yesterday. Now that we
are in the area of Galacia, rain is expected. We watched a weather system
move in tonight, but it is not raining yet, and one of the locals said it
will not rain tomorrow.

I forgot to add a comment about wine to my blog yesterday. Our evening
dinners include a beverage - either water or a bottle of wine. Now it may
surprise you that we choose the wine, and you may ask what does it taste
like if it is equal to water in value - but you would be approaching this
from the perspective of a Canadian, not a Spaniard. The bottle of wine put
on the table last night had a value of around 2 Euros, a little more than a
bottle of water. The wine is locally produced, and sold to the
establishment in large containers. The establishment then divides it into
regularly sized bottle and puts a house label on it. There appears to be no
taxes or government marketing controls. The really big surprise - the wine
was excellent - really. I wish I could bring it home for 2 Euros a bottle,
($3Cdn). It really was a nice wine. The wine tonight really wasn't that
good - but we consoled ourselves that it only cost 2 Euros - what should one
expect - water? It still had more value than water!