Day Five

We started our day with the bells ringing, our call to breakfast with the other pilgrims. We sat with Aidan from Ireland and Ivan from Milan. It was great to speak English and be understood. Aidan was heading out on a slightly different path. Sonja and I wanted to get going early since we anticipated a long day, 15 kilometers saying it would take 5 hours. In our experience, from the signs posted anyway, it usually takes us double the estimated time, today however we came in only a bit over the estimated time, it was indeed an easy trail, the easiest day we've had yet as it was our first path mostly downhill. We began down right away on the other side of where we came in, to no surprise, the terrain totally different once again. We started in a pine forest with small rocks lining our way and before long came to an incredible older white pine forest with tall thick green blades of grass covering the forest floor. At one point we came across a gorgeous hilltop meadow straight out of the Sound of Music, it was about this time I can remember feeling reformed Scrooge like  with a "I must stand on my head" kind of moment, that lasted a great while. I didnt stand on my head, probably only because I cant, but I did spend some time singing and dancing with my poles.  I was disappointed to see that the photos I took along the way today did not work despite having taken them through blogger. We walked a lot on top of mountain ridges with amazing views of adjacent hill tops. As we stopped for lunch atop a column of white rock Ivan walked up. He is a 24 year old mechanical engineer who after having been lost for two hours seemd to really want our company. He was interesting and tried to help me some with my italian. He was walking barefoot with a stick he had made, he seemed a little Jesus like. Today was his first day walking, he is hoping to walk all the way to Rome. He walked with us the rest of the way down into the town of Sieve Santo Stephano. We left him at the town center and walked an additional kilometer to our hotel outside of town. That makes a total so far of 65.9 kilometers or 40.9 miles. So we are averaging about 8 miles a day which I feel is pretty good for us flatlanders in these hills.

I enjoyed some time walking alone today, contemplating about the hundreds of thousands of people who have all walked that trail but I'm certain no two have ever walked the same path. Still, we have many similarities with the strangers we meet. Two women traveling together from Columbia crossed our path and Sonja enjoyed a moment of getting to speak Spanish. They reminded me of the two women from Holland we have seen from time to time and ourselves. We are all about the same age and I imagine all walking for the same reasons, at least generally.

We have now met up with the larger official trail so we may run into more people, but not yet, those are the only 3 people we saw today. Aidan said he has seen wild pigs and deer but we haven't seen anything like that. I saw what looked like a huge elk print, but no elk.

The peace on the trail is reward enough but I would enjoy seeing more wildlife. Tomorrow's trail is 25 kilometers or almost 15 and a half miles. That is probably more than we are ready for so we are talking about riding ahead some, so grateful we have this option, just as I thought a couple of my blisters were disappearing, they are back. I am once again looking forward to when the ristaurantes open for dinner at 7. It's crazy to me we can't find a place to eat between 3 and 7, everything except convenient stores are closed so more chocolate and chips. Last night's dinner was amazing. We all ate in a large dining hall. It was the first salad I've had since I left home, it was delicious!!