Day 6: Hannah´s epic [Boots of iPod] (+20% speed)

Once again, Hannah donned her iPod for a little while in the morning. When she gets into a songshe likes, there´s absolutely no catching her. She just leaves a dust trail like Speedy Gonzalez.

After trying to catch her for 20mins, I switched from the relatively mellowThe Decemberists (folk rock?) to Dethklök (parody speed death metal). There´s no music in the world that could have suited the scenery less, but I gained a bit of ground on her.

On paper, this day didn´t seem like a big one -- 22.4kms over a few mountains, but they were much smaller than the ones we´d done in the first few days. However, Hannah was fading in the last few kms, and I wasn´t too far behind her. I think it´s partly (or mostly) our pack weight. I´ve got 14kgs plus 2 litres water for a total of 16kgs. Some people have only 6 or 7 in total. While walking I mentally made a list of items that seemed essential earlier, but will now be posted back home.
* 10-24mm lens (600g)
* backpacksecurity mesh (600g)
* incompatible power adaptors (100g)
* 2nd thermal long sleeve top (200g)
* spare pillow slips / bag separators (30g)
* bathers (can use shorts instead (100g)

So, there´s probably over 2kgs I already know I can post back, even before I actually unpack my bag. Hannah can probably compile a similar list. It certainly won´t get us down to the 6 kg mark, but it´ll make the end of the long days easier.

However, I think a lot of our fatigue was brought on by the speed sprints induced by Dethklök and whatever Hannah was listening to (I know Whitest Boy Alive was in there somewhere, and a bit of Michael Jackson).

The villages we´re passing through are incredible. The age of these villages is completely, and literally, foreign to us. Many of the cathedrals and churches date from the 1600s, and many of the stone bridges we cross date from the 1100s and 1200s. It´s just incredible to me that so many of these are still in day-to-day use for the general population. They´re not really tourist attractions, they´re just there.

After checking in with the albergue, we laid in the sun by the river, next to a towering stone church. The lunch we´d carried with us (bread stick, a tomato, olives) was followed by a snooze on the grass. It doesn´t get much better than this. :)

We spend dinner with two Aussies from Adelaide, Peter and Erin, and spent the evening talking about travel, house renovations and volunteer work organisations (Erin´s field of expertise). I think this was the first night infinite wine wasn´t included, so we settled for a cerveza (beer) instead. :)