We did not see a single pilgrim nor any yellow arrows the whole day today. We were directed to use the 'main road' a.k.a. the highway and we missed all the beauty of the walk today.
Kept asking for directions and kept being told 'this is the way to Santiago, keeping going'. Yet my gut was saying no, because I'd read up prior to leaving how the walk should look like. But then where else would we go but straight ahead and northbound.
Today's walk was mostly pain-free. Two books I've read came to mind. One is Antifragile and the other about walking meditation. Antifragile has a theory that the human body only gets stronger when we push it and tear our muscles in pushing ourselves beyond our norms. Then the walking meditation one was saying, that unlike vipassana, where we put our mind into our breath, here we're mindfully stepping with each step, noticing the stresses in our posture that create stresses in our feet. That helped a great deal.
When we got to our hostel we caught up with other pilgrims who were just as disappointed by the walking directions they received in Vianna do Costello as they also walked to here on that highway. Ah! Goes to show that sometimes the Camino chooses which path you'll take.
Its beautiful here, Vila Praia de Âncora, if we had more time this is the place to spend a day to rest. But we're told Caminha is more beautiful. We're joining up with two other pilgrims today. Passing Caminha which is 8km away and going on another 15 km. Let's see how we do.
Feeling great! Feeling blessed to be able to get to do this.
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