Great Day 3: Zaurutz to Deba

Today was the hilliest day yet but I hear tell that tomorrow will be worse. The views remain fabulous. I passed many vinyards, farms, rolling hills and/or mountains, and continuing beautiful views of the coastline. There are a couple of frustrations. The first is my horrible ¨guide¨book which is put out by some british organization. It is essentially some guy walking, taking notes, typing them up, photocopying them and selling them. There are no maps and the descriptions are confusing. It´s very frustrating to not know when you will find the next water supply, or food, or how many km. it is to the next village. Today I was feeling exhausted and thought I had 10 more miles but alas it was only 4. The other problem is that unlike Ina, I do not have a grandmother who has provided me with shoulder pads to place between my backpack straps and collar bones. Last year it wasn´t a problem due to the wearing of a thick, fleece jacket. Today, I remedied the problem by folding up a thick pair of socks and wedging them under the straps. I wish I had thought of this days ago before I developed the reddish purple raw patches on my skin. LIve and learn.
I encountered many goats today but none were interested in walking with me. I tried to follow up on my friend, Valerie´s, advice and photgraph one of them wearing my sunhat. They were not accomodating. A nearby mule, however was. I thought I had taken a picture but alas, it is a short movie. The hat isn´t really all the way on his head, due to the barbed wire fence that was between us. It was hard to put the hat on and take the picture.
I arrived in town and was able to snag one of only 8 beds in the albergue. The two french couples, christiane & andre (on foot), Marie and Patric (on bike) have also arrived. So has the spanish guy from bilbao. Brian, he looks a bit like the jockey/detective from the 1980s era Dick Francis dvds. Unlike the jockey though, this guy has some sort of pierced lip with a spike coming out of it. I have also met a french man who walked from Le Puy, in france, to santiago and is now walking back. He is doing this to prepare for his 4 month walk from Seattle to Monterey, Mexico. And, move over Christian, I might have a new hero. Jeanine is a 79 year old French woman who is walking from Arles, France. She fell down yesterday though so took the bus here. She is a bit beat up but perseverant. Unlike the other french people, she doesn´t seem to understand that I don´t speak french and talks to me at length. I get about 5% of what she is saying.
Okay, I must run as there was a power outage here at the internet facility and this has taken forever to write.