The toughest day

Day 5 was the hardest day yet.  The temp climbed past 30C.  We had to do the most climbing yet--up one side and down the other 3 times.  In the morning we walked into Bolibar (Bolivar): named for the great liberator.  From there it was up, up and up through beautiful forests and across farmland.  We meet up with a friend from the last couple of days.  He is a 70 year old Frenchman who can walk us into the ground.  He doesn't stay in the albergues with the rest of us, and he's always surprised when he asks how long we've been walking.  He warned us of rain tomorrow on the way into Bilbao.  After lunch, the heartbreak began---up and down over the Basque hills.  I fell asleep during one break I was so tired.  At a stream, I wanted to soak my handkerchief and apply it to my head, while Pete wanted to move on (he is stronger than I am).  We agreed to meet at the hostel in Guernika.  I. almost didn't make it.  I had to stop almost every 20 minutes to rest.  I was stumbling on the muddy rocky paths.  I was on the move (except when I was flopped down on the ground from exhaustion, for nearly 12 hours today. 
At one point I was having some serious inner dialogue about what the heck I was up to.  I wondered if I had really been "called" to Camino or if it was just vanity, look at me and what I can do (and at that moment couldn't do).  I was seriously considering spending the night in the hills, crying for momma, or inventing a teleporter like Star Trek to beam me out of there.  At 5:00 and 4 miles from Guernika, I came upon a house with 4 generations of women sitting in the shade together.  I begged, "Agua por favor,"  I must have looked a pitiful sight, because the ran to fill my bottle, watched me down it, brought me more and a separate bottle from the refrigerator.  Then they offered me a beer too!  As I was nearly kissing them goodbye, and invoking the blessings of Saint James, they screamed I was going the wrong way.  The Camino path went higher into the mountain, while the road, "just over there" was nicely gaded and met up with the Camino in Guernica.  After I met up with Pete again, he said he was worried about heat stroke as he climbed.  I covered my head and stumbled down the hill.  A very tough day.  Laundry, dinner. (Meatballs and carrots, pasta with tuna, and bread in the hostel dining room), and now I hope to sleep tonight, but Barcelona and Bilbao meet in football tonight---it could get very rowdy hereabout.   There are about 40 people staying in the hostel, and about 20 have come in for football.
Todau I mingled hopes and fears with Magdalena V.
Buen Camino.