Our bodies talked to us today: we had to listen, and listen carefully.
Laura’s knees are still troubling her, with no promising signs that they would get better as we walked. That is why we decided to stop earlier than planned, as we didn’t want to risk further injuries.
From the looks of it, her left knee or muscle tied to it might have a contracture. The only way for that to heal is to get some rest.
And so we did, after trying to walk slowly for the best part of 4 hours, we decided to stop in the small town of Cóbreces, 12 Km away from our starting point in Santillana del Mar. This meant we could take the afternoon off and let our bodies breath a little.
The walk was nice, we went up and down a couple of hills (which didn’t help at all with the knee situation) and had some nice sights on the tall mountains called Picos de Europa (i.e. peaks of Europe) and the sea. We couldn’t enjoy it much though, because we were worried about not injuring ourselves even more.
As usual, we had a hard time finding accommodation. One of the hospitaleros advised us to book every night in advance, because the upcoming week will be very tough to find space for us. Like in Italy, August is the busiest month for hotels, inns, hostels and the likes. We’ll have to become more used to calling and booking places.
This is a new experience for me, as when I was walking the Camino Francés in April, it was assumed that you would find a place at almost any hostel. It was just never a thing to worry about.
What I didn’t account for, this time, was not so much that there would be many pilgrims on the road, but rather that there would be a lot of regular tourists taking up the majority of spots at most of the albergues. I hate tourists.
So yeah, tonight we get some rest and tomorrow we’ll see how we wake up.
Pushing on will only make things worse. Stubbornness can work on the Camino, but sooner or later you will pay the price for it, with interest.
Shit happens. The only thing that matters is how you deal with it.
If need be, we’ll stay here another day.