November 10, 2017, Day 15

A good night sleep again at the hostel at Villafranca - by an open window, listening to the water running in the river just across the street - and some coughing fits in the night.
We even woke up by the smell of toasts - the hosts are quite resourceful and are not standing beside the breakfast bar, but have everything on pre-programmed switches that turned themselves on about 10 minutes before 7am. Our room colleagues left some time earlier, but I didn't even hear them.
After breakfast we set out for today's section: only 23 km today, but the last hour goes uphill.
The route first went along a road, every now and then crossing under the motorway - it makes one feel very small suddenly when you are walking under the pillars of a motorway, where huge lorries are passing by at a speed 25 times your speed.
Also a bit quicker was an Australian girl we met a few times already, but I could keep up and chat with her until we reached the first village, Pereje. I was undecided if I already wanted to stop here or not - just then Marti passed by and told me she was not able to start again (due to her hip problems) if she stopped here, so we walked on.

About 2 hours later we made a quick "pit-stop" with coffee and a croissant, and went furter on. By this time I was getting hungry - we still had some cheese with us, but no bread. Just when I was about to give up eating, a nice panaderia was before us - with really lovely bread. And a tea for me - my throat was throbbing by then.

And we were still about 2 hours from our destination. The first hour was OK, then I was getting a bit tired. Marti was by then not able anymore to keep up - I waited for her a longer time before the very last section - and climbing uphill - started.

And I waited. And waited. And it was getting cold. And just in that second a car passed by. Driven by a guy, and on the Beifahrersitz: Marti. Even smiling at me. It was kind of weird that she didn't let the car stop and tell me she hitchhiked the last 2 km, but I thought she already asked a favour in letting her be driven, she didn't want to ask another one. I tried to call her then, just to make sure, but she didn't answer her phone. My explanation: her backpack is for sure in the trunk of the car, she can't get to it.
So I started my uphill climb relaxed that she was fine, and will wait at me on top of the hill. This last section went across the woods, and these little Fliegenpilze (légyölő galóca) greeted me at the first corner.

 It was such a creepy felling, that I darted uphill, and got up within 25 minutes, while my book (that usually is very precise on how much time you need for a section) calculated with one hour.

Up in the village - La Faba - I went to check in, and asked, if Marti already arrived. The guy just looked at me, that only one person is here, but she arrived already hours ago. And of course she was not Marti. At this point I started to be nervous, but there was little I could do other than checking my phone if she called.
But no, some time later she arrived - limping, but happy.
And again we had a great place to stay: a room for us both plus the previously arrived Italian woman. She turned out to be a physiotherapist, and also checked on Marti's hip - she said it was not yet inflammated, but she should take 2 days off.
This evening we also had a real vegetarian dinner. Real means, that vegetarian as we understand it (no meat, no fish), here in Spain if you say you're vegetarian, you get a tuna steak served. A nice warming soup, and some roasted vegetables from the garden of the hostel - nothing fancy but simply good and healthy.
Oh, and our hostel was run by volunteers: currently 3 guys from Italy and 1 from Ireland. I wonder how they spend the winters up there - the whole village of La Faba is quite picturesque, but there are about 15 houses there, and about at the end of November there are hardly any pilgrims coming, up until the beginning of March...