Day 9 - The Hardest Day - Ponte de Lima to Rubiães

We scheduled our layday in Ponte de Lima partly because we knew what was coming next. The path is neither harder nor easier than we imagined. It is what it is. Some parts are magic and some parts are downright misery. Today, however, was the hardest, most challenging day we’ve experienced thus far… misery climbing, magic once we reached the top. We left our cozy apartment and rejoined the Camino once again. We passed by Manuel’s shop and he cheerfully stamped our passports, then reminded David to add two to the number of pilgrims that had passed by his shop. Within in a short distance we were walking a narrow cement path along side a canal. At times, the path narrowed so that a misstep would have caused a dunking, but we managed to stay on the path. At one point, the path disappeared and we crossed the canal by hopping over stones. We were prepared for the steep ascent. We’d read about it and David had downloaded an altitude profile, but actually walking it was far more difficult than…