Day 5 I really felt like I was getting into the heart of the wilderness. The air was cold and bracing and fresh and clean. It rained nearly the whole day, as it did almost every day of my hike. It got hilly, and often the high places were cloaked in mist. The mountains were mysterious and magical.
One thing I began to notice was that the face of the landscape changed every day depending on the type of stone found in that particular area. People use the native stone to build their houses and fencing, and so as I did my journey on foot, one day's scenery could look very different from the next. I loved watching this happen. On the picture below, you can see how massive slabs of rock were stood on end to construct an enclosure.
After some heavy climbing over scrubby pine hills, I looked down onto a huge lake. I don't know what its name was--I'd seen pictures of it in the blogs I'd read before starting my journey, but it looked blue in those pictures and now it was much darker. I couldn't avoid getting soaked in the fine rain, and ate my lunch standing up and looking down on this view.
There was a lot of up and down, but it was manageable. I saw a rainbow again! When I got near to the end of my hike, I was really ready to stop. I found an albergue but it was closed for the season. I felt a little worried, but then noticed another hiker coming into the town. He was looking for a place to stay too, so we walked around together and finally realized that the only place available was a regular hotel. He said, "Wanna share?" and I was like, "Okay." We booked a room and then when we got to it I asked, "What's your name?" and we both laughed, because we had literally just gotten a hotel room together without knowing each other's names. XD
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His name was Francesc (or Vincenç?) and he was a cook from Barcelona. He had walked 41 kilometers that day, about 20 more than I had! We both got cleaned up, hung up our clothes, and then sat around in bed like an old married couple, reading on our phones and occasionally trading useful information about travel apps or how to avoid blisters, or laughing about what the other had found necessary to pack--he thought it was funny I had brought my own blanket with me--I thought it was hilarious and so Spanish that he had brought along a bottle of his own olive oil for cooking. XD
We ended up turning in at about 8:00, which is not so uncommon on the trail. I thought I'd see Francesc/Vincenç again, because even though he covered a lot more ground per day than I did, he said he was going to walk the trail back after he got to Santiago. I didn't run into him again though.
One thing about the Camino is that it's full of chance. I remember saying to Nicolás that if you started one hour earlier or later, you would have a completely different experience and meet completely different people. He said, "Tía, if you start ten minutes earlier or later it will be different!"
Thanks, @eeks, and everyone. I love you! <3