In spite of the smiles in the photos, this was a hard day. I was still feeling very, very tired. It was an hour’s walk just to get out of the city and I sacrilegiously suggested we could get a cab to the city border. The others saved me from myself and said ‘No’. It all worked out though because we lost the way and ended up walking along the main road, which was an hour shorter!
We arrived in Redondela, the next town, to find pilgrims everywhere! This is where the more popular central route joins the coastal route of the Portuguese Camino. It was actually a little overwhelming and we decided to walk another three kilometers to an albergue out of town – and even this was almost full.
By the evening, my feet and ankles were swollen and my heart was beating a little faster than I’m used to. We slept in bunk beds in a large dormitory – and after everyone else had gone to bed, I crept into the kitchen so as not to wake anyone up and called Kenneth in tears, to say I didn’t know if physically I could make through the last few days to reach Santiago. He calmed me down and we agreed that I should walk tomorrow as it would be a shorter stage and anyway I couldn’t stay here another day – and if I didn’t feel better tomorrow evening I would rest for a day or two.
Fatijah's Camino Portugués 2016 