Day 7 to Mogro
10 September 2023 Day 7 was a 42 km day
Well, today was a slow newsday primarily due to the fact that I had a Hamburguesa yesterday afternoon, that I should not have eaten, (when in doubt, absolutely throw it out, don’t do it right?) and it came back to haunt me big time that evening!
On the surface the roadside beach surf shop café looked good, but there was just something a little undercooked about that hamburger and I had a thought about it but by then I ate most of it except the bun -Yup food poisoning that evening fast forward to this morning.
I’m very thankful that it essentially has passed but my appetite for food diminished to zero along with a worry that something will not stay with me, not a good combination with high intensity biking to run a calorie deficit. I gambled I’m trying to eat something to get started this morning. I only had three glasses of orange juice and yogurt and a banana.
Today’s route was shorter for which I was very thankful all things considered. My goal was simply to get to my next lodging and take a jumbo siesta as I was extremely tired before I even started this morning.
I try not to look at weather apps, unless it appears like the potential of threatening, weather off on the horizon. It is what it is and I have a rain jacket that I can always throw one quickly and ride. It did appear to be raining toward the coast on the far end of the valley as you can see from this picture so my goal was to get some kilometers under me and be ahead of whatever the weather is moving out there I do not want to be riding on pavement in light rain, or otherwise, for obvious reasons.
Today for peregrinos and bicigrino alike it was a lot of pavement and road walking. I feel a little more sorry for them but it is part of the Camino experience. I was thankful to be able to move through it at 10 to 12 miles an hour all morning.
View from my second-floor window this morning the rain off in the distance never caught up with me. Weather forecast often involve the threat of moderate to heavy rain, but these storms often don’t materialize, but when they do, they’re intense, but usually move through rather quickly from what I’m told. This was a very very nice pension I stayed at kind of in the middle of nowhere.
My beautiful room near Mogro
View from Marina del Cudeyo of the big city of Santandar
When I got to Santander and disembarked I studied the map on the app for how to get to the Camino route as quick as possible. Santander is a BIG city. Consequently, I had no time to sightsee in this big urban sprawl. This is a bit of a recurring theme, and when I have a bicycle and the luxury of moving around quickly, the focus has primarily been to stay on the trail and get to the next destination - again, both myself and the walkers had a lot of pavement time today. I did, however stay hydrated and used electrolyte tablets in my water bottle, which I’m sure helped immensely with my recovery.
The waterfront at Santander is very beautiful. Leaving such a large town as Santander is sometimes a bit of a challenge to find shortest way out and still stay on the Camino ‘trail’
Away from the city and on yet another Camino variant en route to Mogro, a long and winding road, the view over my shoulder back downhill was gorgeous
Siesta time in one of the ‘common areas’ at my inn in Mogro
Highlight of the day: getting to my next destination, finding it, and taking a long siesta
“Pilgrimages of mind or walking meditation – bringing moments of illumination in which the sense of relationship to the rest of existence suddenly stands out with startling and unexpected clarity.”
~ David Fontana
