Day 4 was by far the most exciting day of my trip. I literally could have died (but I guess that's true of any day of our lives). Anyway, if you're wondering why there are so few photos in this article, it's because I was busy surviving.
The day started out swimmingly well, with the most brilliant rainbow I've ever seen! I love rainbows, and I learned something amazing about them that day: you know that legend about finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? Well I always thought it was impossible to find the end of a rainbow, because they are really circular, and I thought the reason they seem to have ends to us is because we can't see the full circle over the horizon or curvature of the earth. But that day I saw the end of the rainbow, gently resting down in a golden field! So the legend is true. ;)
I don't remember much else from the first half of the day, until I drew near the end of the recommended hiking section and saw a sign advertising a laundromat--"Wash and dry all your clothes in 45 minutes!"
That sounded sooo nice, so I stopped and washed and dried everything and ordered a coffee in a bar. Looking back, this was all a mistake. It made me lose valuable daylight and everything got wet and dirty almost immediately again anyway. I looked over my papers: there was an albergue in this town, but it was only 2 in the afternoon and I didn't feel like stopping. (In a way it was a good thing I didn't, because later I talked to a hiker who had stayed in that albergue and he said it was really cold and moldy, and since I didn't have a sleeping bag with me, I couldn't handle staying in albergues that had no heating or blankets provided.) Nevertheless, the next town with an albergue listed was 17 kilometers away, and I didn't know if I could make it there before dark.
I started rationalizing with myself. Sometimes there were albergues that were not listed in the official papers you got at the tourist office. And a friend had told me the shepherds' huts along the trail were left open in case pilgrims needed a place to sleep (not that I had actually seen any shepherds huts along the way so far). And even if I couldn't find anything, surely there would be some house I could ask and pay to sleep in.
I decided to go for it, telling myself it would be fine. I hiked out of the town on the highway, and then at one point there was a fork: take the rural path, or stay on the highway. There was a sign on the rural path saying it wasn't safe, because the river had overflooded its banks. I vacillated. I had gone on the Camino to spend time in nature, not walk on a highway, and besides, the asphalt hurts your feet like crazy after a while.
I headed down the rural path. I could always go back if the river was impassible, right? Except it took me a long time to get to the river. When I got there, it was indeed flooded and the bridge was smashed up, but I managed to find a way over by wading and carrying my shoes. A bit farther down, I needed to cross it again, and had to throw my shoes across ahead of me and then find a log to balance across. The river was so fast there that a log I dipped in to test the depth got jerked out of my hands. But I got across safely, and then a third time again farther on.
I have to say though, that I was having a fantastic time. I was having adventures and felt so alive. I was enjoying nature immensely. The trail was beautiful. My feet were wet, but as long as I kept moving, they stayed warm. Soon though, the rain turned to cold and it started getting chilly. I wasn't really dressed for that kind of weather. Luckily Nicolás had given me an old fleece pullover, or I probably would have gotten hypothermia.
I came to a highway. This is the point where I probably should have hitchhiked a ride. My body was tired, and the next stretch of trail went right up a mountain. However, once again I stubbornly pressed on.
It was incredibly difficult climbing that mountain. I had run out of water, but luckily found a stream and refilled my bottle. There were trees on the way up, but the top of the mountain was completely bald and the wind up there was terrific. I mean it was so strong I could hardly move forward. Not to mention it was icy cold. It seemed like something out of Star Wars.
Finally I got over the peak and started down the other side, which cut out the worst of the wind. There was a highway criss-crossing the mountain, and every so often I had to cross it. That made me feel a little safer, knowing that I had a way out into civilization if I really got into trouble.
I got to a point where it was getting too dark to hike anymore. I had just come out onto the highway again, and had the choice to go back down into the wilderness trail, which was uninvitingly blocked by some fallen branches. I could hike the highway to the next town, but it seemed dangerous in the dark as I didn't have reflective clothing or a flashlight, and the battery on my phone was almost dead (I'd been using my phone as a flashlight when I needed one). And the next town was 5 km away.
I decided to try to flag down a car. There weren't very many, so I'd wait for one and then turn on my phone screen and wave it up and down.
And the cars drove past me, one after another. I was like, are you serious? I realize that hitchhiking is frowned upon in some places, but I mean the wind was howling and it was raining and freezing cold and dark and I was obviously a hiker who had been stupid enough to get into trouble and need some help. Is this how it ends? I wondered in disbelief. Am I really going to just die up here on this mountain?
I really didn't like to do this, but I decided to call emergency rescue. The lady who picked up kept being like What? What? I can't hear you! Where are you? I tried to explain, by describing the roadsigns I could see. But you're alright, aren't you? Yes, I'm alright, but I'm very cold! (which I'm sure was obvious through my chattering teeth). Don't hang up the phone, I'm going to transfer you to the local police. What. Okay, but my battery is almost empty! (I was literally down to 1%.)
I saw a car coming, and waved my phone at it. It stopped! There was an old couple inside. They rolled down the window. I explained my situation. They reluctantly agreed to take me to the next town and I climbed into their car, so grateful. My phone had gone dead. I managed to wake it up and tried to call the emergency line again to tell them I was okay. The couple told me not to bother, because no one was coming for me anyway. Really? I got through and again got the What? What? What exactly is your problem? Come on, my Spanish isn't that bad! I explained the emergency had been averted and I didn't need to be rescued anymore. Okay, bye.
(Stock photo, lol--I was too freezing to take my own XD)
The couple drove me to the next stop on the trail, Berducedo. They kindly dropped me at an albergue and came inside with me to make sure I could get a room there. They even bought me a coffee at the bar to warm me up. I kissed them both. I was sure they had saved my life, but they didn't seem to be too impressed with that fact. They were very nonchalant about it.
I was so deeply cold that the lady of the house told me to take a shower before checking in. I stood under the hot water for literally several minutes before my teeth stopped knocking together. I hung all my clothes on the various heaters and slept very warm and grateful that night.