Camino walking day 3

Day 3 was a shorter day. After two days of 23+ kms our third day was set down as 15km with 100m elevation gain and a loss of 150m.

We got away a bit later than on the two previous days a I had some swimming things to attend to and had a problem with the wifi connection so could not get everything done before having breakfast. It did mean that Jen had a little extra time to put up her feet before tackling the days walk.

By the time we got away the day was warming up and the temperature climbed throughout the day. It felt much hotter than the mid 20s that someone said it was. we were both pleased to see and then arrive at Melide, our overnight stop. The walk had been hot. Shade, where we found it was most welcome and a fickle beeze gratefully accepted even if it blews Jen's hat off.

Today we came across quite a number of small, ancient churches. Here are some of the ones we saw.

Interior of the church shown above

The church also had some surviving frescos

The trail has been wellmarked with a range of markers. Some have been shown in earlier posts. Here are a couple of different ones that we came across today:

Camino marker set into the pavement

A yellow arrow made of shells

Along with cats, dogs, chooks, pigs, cattle (both barned and out in paddocks) we have come across a couple of lizards. The first had a lovely green back and was a mid sized fellow, I didn't get a photo of him (or her!). The second one was being teased by a trio of walkers. He was doing a great job of ïf I don't move you won't know I'm there!) and I did capture him:

Today, as in the past two days we used a number of bridges. Some are quite old. Here is one of the bridged we used tody.

The tracks used by the pilgrims (both walkers and those on bikes) use paths and roadways. The surfaces vary from smooth bitumen to rocky and all shades in between. Some are quite hard on feet while others are more gentle.

The feet of the walkers take a fair amount of punishment. During our lunchI noticed about half of the people were limping or hobbling. Quite a few had their footware off and were tending to their feet.

Jen and I had spent quite a bit of time strapping our feet before seeting our for the days walk and our feet held up pretty well with no new blisters. Yes, we do have some already, unfortunately.

The peak of the season has gone and the number of pilgrims is now relatively small compared to earler part of August. A number of places have already shut their doors for the year. Fortunately there are still quite a few open vying for the passing trade.

Our overnight stop was Melide which turned out to be a reasonable sized town.

Todays stats: Distance: 15.68km; Elevation gain: 493m and loss 633