Day 10 - Moving on

Before moving on, I would like to say a little more about the wonderful rest area that we stopped at. The people who ran, as in every rest area, ask people to sign a book with their name, where they come from, their age, and the number of times they have completed the Henro Pilgrimage. When I was guided into the space under the tent, there were a couple of people there already. It turned out that one was older than me, 72 to my 69. However, I was on my first pilgrimage and he was on this 12th. He had started the year that he retired and had done it once a year ever since. Our discussion made the volunteers interested in the age distribution of the people who had stopped there, so one of them looked back through the book. The oldest person, 82 had actually been there earlier that morning. He had completed the circuit almost 50 times. They said that he walked really fast and passed almost everyone. Needless to say, we did not catch up with him. It turned out that I was one of the older people and I believe that I was the oldest to be on a first pilgrimage.

As we left, they gave us a copy of a map showing all the rest areas for the next 100 kilometers or so. It was actually quite useful, since it allowed us to plan our stops rather than just happen on the rest areas.

After we left, we we immediately went through a long tunnel and then down a hill to a beach. We then followed the coast line, passing a series of beautiful little beaches. I will let the pictures speak for themselves and not try to say anything about them. Enjoy.