Day 46 to 47: Portomarín to Palas de Rei

"Here comes the rain again,
falling on my head like a tragedy
tearing me apart like a new emotion"
-Eurythmics

Well, my luck with the weather has apparently run out. Galicia gets, on average, one rainy day every three. So far, I've had three sunny days here. Using my advanced weather prediction system, based purely on statistics, I predict rain for the next 9 days. In any case, this kind of thing is to be expected in Galicia, so I can't say I wasn't expecting it at some point. Other than the weather, the first half of today's walk, into Ventas, was pleasant - if a little strenuous. We're just now starting to leave the foothills of the Cordillera Cantabrica, so over the next couple of days, the ups and downs are supposedly going to start getting more gentle and gradual.

Walking to Palas de Rei was pretty much more of the same - through many, many small Gallego villages and farmland. Towards the end of it, I felt myself losing energy fast. I found that odd, since I had only done 22k to that point, but I shrugged it off as just a bad day. I had no idea at that point how bad the day would become. Checked into the albergue in Palas de Rei, which is an ugly little town, at around 4:30. Decided very soon afterwards that I didn't like the vibe of the place, so I found a cheap room in a pensión to crash in. Good thing too - I would have been a huge nuisance at the albergue that night. Tried to take a bit of a siesta when I arrived in the pensión, but for some reason, I couldn't get warm. I had every blanket in the room on me, including 4 flannel blankets, and I was still shivering. Eventually gave up and went downstairs to check on my e-mail. Still freezing, still shivering. Wasn't sure what was going on, since I'm normally not at all sensitive to cold weather. Just as I left the internet café to grab some dinner, I realized something was up; I started getting dizzy and nauseous, and I could barely see straight. Looks like the stomach bug that's been going around the albergues since Sahagún had finally caught up with me.

Spent much of the night rushing back and forth to the toilet, mostly kneeling. Didn't sleep much more than a wink between the stomach cramps and the shivers. By around 5:00am, I started to feel a little better - warmer anyway, and by 8:00 the stomach cramps had mostly subsided. Still, I decided the wise thing to do would be to stay put and rest up; last thing I need would be to start vomiting while on the road to the next town. Checked into a proper hotel this morning, and slept for the majority of the day - only requiring one or two emergency trips to the bathroom early on in the morning. Feeling immensely better now, although still a little weak from lack of nutrition over the past 24 hours. Still, I might hold off on dinner for a bit - at least until I'm positive I can keep it down.

Tomorrow, assuming I'm all better, I'll be doing 26k to Ribadiso del Baixo, then Arca the day after that. After that, a 20k stroll into Santiago de Compostella. Looks like I'm going to make it after all, if only a little worse for the wear.