Palas del Rei to Arzúa, 18.6 miles

It was a long, hard day. I slept poorly at a very noisy albergue, and last night I admitted to Katie what I've been feeling—30 days of continuous walking is catching up to me. After checking the elevation profile in my app, I dreaded today's walk. I knew there would be a lot of climbing.

I started around 7:45 this morning dreading the miles ahead. But as the saying goes, the Camino provides, and it certainly did just that.

I had countless conversations with complete strangers today. Young and old, from all around the world. At one bar, I stopped for tea and started chatting with an American couple who insisted I sit down and share their pizza. I walked with Roberto, who lives in Venice and is a chef at a restaurant there. We must have walked together for a couple of hours. I chatted with Ursula from Australia, whom I've talked to before. One South Korean couple approached me and asked if I was Shelley. They told me their good friend Park had not stopped talking about me since we walked together at least two weeks ago.

All of these conversations helped me completely forget my fatigue and made the day fun. It was still long, but it was filled with good people when I needed them most.

And of all the random things, in the middle of nowhere was a man selling fresh strawberries. I haven't seen strawberries since I've been here. I bought a cup and ate them as I walked—the juiciest, sweetest, most delicious strawberries ever. They definitely made me happy.

The excitement of arriving in Santiago de Compostela in two days is building. Santiago is the traditional end point of the Camino and where you get your certificate of completion. I will continue on to Finisterre though. I'm also beginning to look forward to coming home.

I realized today that I left one very important thing off my list of tips yesterday: training. If you're going to walk the Camino, you need to be prepared. It is not easy. You need to walk up and down hills, you need to walk distance, you need to go on a treadmill and walk at an incline for an hour twice a week. You need to be doing all of this at least five days a week if you want to be well prepared for your Camino. I want to thank all of my training partners—Lulu, Porsche, Barbara and Maureen. I could not have done this without your support.

A little rain today but not enough to ruin the day. The temperature was about 40 degrees this morning when we started and climbed to the low 50s. Definitely chilly, but you warm up after the first couple of hours. My weather app is showing a trend of higher temperatures, so keep your fingers crossed. Nothing would make me happier than a warm, sunny day.

Buen Camino!