Hiking with an Opera Singer

 Hiking Day 29    May 8

Berducedo to Grandes de Salime

Miles 14.2

Total Miles 403

Ascent 2952’

Descent 4035’

Yesterday was a total rest day. Took it very easy to allow my hip and knee time to rehab. Self diagnosis is an inflamed and angry periformis muscle in my hip area. 

Last night we did find a great dinner place in the very small town where we were staying. We had the “Pilgrim Meal” which is offered in many restaurants along the various Camino. It typically includes either beer or a carafe of wine, a first course, second course, dessert, and bread, all for a very reasonable fixed price. Last night’s meal was 12 Euros (about $13.50 USD). The wine comes in a  fair size carafe (a lot for one person, just right for two, and a tad light for 3). I had beer and Bill and Scot drank the carafe. We had choices of firsts, but all choose the local special soup…a combo of collard greens, potatoes, onion, a few white beans, chorizo sausage, and a few pieces of blood sausage. It was outstanding. 

                        The serving bowl AFTER we each had already eaten two bowls of the soup!

The main was a large thin steak, perfectly cooked, and the usual “French fries”. I had a cheese yogurt with honey on top for my dessert. It was our favorite meal of the trip. The owner also served us a complementary shot glass of  Orujo. Orujo is a homemade drink of wine and fermented grapes that is then distilled. It is a family recipe and the owner said only his 80 year old father knows the exact recipe. The alcohol content is 40-50% and the name Orujo roughly translates to “fire water”. One shot glass each is being “over served”.

                                                        Bill after one sip…

This morning we catch a pre-arranged taxi at 9 am back to where we left off hiking two days ago. It is predicted to be another tough day with the largest descent of the trip and a significant uphill as well. The weather is turning hot and we leave our light weight down jackets in our transported luggage and we start out in shorts.We start fairly high and begin to climb almost right away.

After a few miles of uphill and short downhills, we start the longest descent of the trip as the trail drops for about 5 miles and well over 3300’. Along the descent we meet a young woman  perhaps in her late 30’s from the Netherlands. We talk to her briefly and continue downhill. The path is a logging road and the hiking is relatively easy. Eventually we drop to a large reservoir where we stop at a wonderful, but well hidden overlook that looks down on the dam and the valley. We are joined again by the lady from the Netherlands and we learn that her name is Wendy.

Wendy is planning a 5 month thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail next summer. The PCT goes from the US/Mexico border to the US/Canada border….2650 miles! We have a long discussion over our sack lunches about long distance backpacking gear. She owns almost identical gear to what the 3 of us use. When we ask what she does in the Netherlands, we are very surprised to learn that she is a professional opera singer currently living in The Hague.

It is amazing the people that we meet on these hikes. They are full of surprises, interesting life stories, and are a very wide range of ages.

Following lunch we walk across the dam and start a long climb up, stopping at a restaurant overlooking the lake for our mid day cup of coffee.

This is a beautiful area of Spain. Our weather has become wonderful and my hip and knee are great today! We complete our climb into the small village of Grandas de Salime where we check into our small hotel to find that our luggage has once again not been delivered. We sort that out and head to one of the two bar/cafes in the village for a couple of beers where we meet Nikye, also from the Netherlands, who is a psychologist at a university in Amsterdam. After beers we return to the hotel where our bags have finally arrived.

We have four long hiking days ahead of us, then the Primitivo ends and we join the Camino Frances for the last 4 days into Santiago and those last 4 days will be shorter days. We passed the 400 mile mark today…we have about 120 miles to go!!