Twenty-five kilometers for Day 25. This was today’s plan in a nutshell.

We went to dinner yesterday thinking that we’d just get something light to eat and then go to bed early. Today was supposed to be hot, and we wanted to start a bit earlier than usual.

That didn’t happen. However, it was for a good reason: while going to dinner, we bumped into a German man and two Italian ladies whom we’ve been seeing for two or three days. They seemed like good company and invited us to join them, so we did.

The man, named Jürgen, is quite the character. He has a very interesting backstory and is walking the Camino for the first time. He mentioned beating some sort of serious illness, which led to selling his business and moving to a quieter life in the countryside of Saarland, one of the smallest regions of Germany.

He’s making the best out of this experience, and is especially fond of the two Italian women who were with him last night, Manuela and Patrizia. They are also very interesting people to talk to, and we all had a pleasant time yesterday.

Dinner was superb, especially the caldo gallego and the wine: an Albariño (white wine from Galicia) which was suggested to us by an exuberant, yet friendly, waiter.

We entered the restaurant with the idea of a quite dinner and an early bedtime, we ended up visiting one of the smallest chapels in the world, carved by an artist into a 700-year old chestnut tree which was earmarked for being cut down (another suggestion from the waiter).

Overall, it was worth it. We made some friends, ate some good food, drank some excellent wine, and discovered something new. This is what the Camino is about.

The walk started well today. It was quite cold so that motivated us to keep a good pace. Furthermore, we knew it was going to get quite warm in the afternoon: every kilometer we walked in the cool temperatures of the early morning, was a kilometer of misery in the Sun that we would spare for our future selves.

The scenery was beautiful: a forest covered in mist, with wildlife all around. We even saw a deer who crossed our path and ran away swiftly. This encounter was definitely more pleasant than the one we had with a boar a few days ago.

After around three hours of solid walk, we managed to find a bar. There we had some excellent bocadillo and tortilla, which was essential to getting through the afternoon without fainting.

Laura kept foraging for wild blackberries the whole day. I believe that has become her favorite hobby on the Camino.

At around 1 PM, it became quite hot and difficult to walk at a good pace. As a matter of fact, we almost ran out of water before finally getting to our destination: the tiny town of Roxica.

We managed to secure a room at a beautiful albergue in Roxica, and hopefully we’ll enjoy a good dinner tonight as well. We definitely need one.

The numbers we saw on the milestones (mojones) seemed to go down a lot faster today. Once you cross the 100 km mark, that tends to happen.

It’s strange to think that we are three days away from Santiago. Just a few days ago it seemed like this walk would never end, especially when I could barely walk downhill because of my injured knee.

Today I felt good, and ready to walk more and more. If it wasn’t for the temperature and a likely late time of arrival, I believe we could have pushed more than 30 km, despite the last part of the stage being a constant, yet gentle, ascent and uphill road.

Oh well, it might as well be that tomorrow one of us will not feel good, and we will have to start from scratch again.

Hopefully that won’t be the case, though, and we can reach Santiago being our best selves, both physically and mentally.