After a night listening to barking dogs and dreaming of bedbugs, we rose and organized ourselves to get walking at 8:15 and finished coffee and started out of town by 8:30 AM. Luckily the antihistamines seem to be taking hold and Leslie´s bites look under control. It was a cute albergue with some of the people we walked with staying under the same roof, a family of Irish pilgrims, a German couple we have seen for several days and who have also had problems with shin splints that delayed them for several days.
We knew it was going to be a hard day especially with Leslie´s delicate condition. It was a distance of 26 KM but also a rise of 450 meters, with the walk being about two third ascent. But we had a reservation for a room with private bath at the end of the trail, so that was a reasonable motivation. And the weather provided the 32nd day without rain, and the sun came out after the mist cleared at 11 AM after being absent for a day or so. Weather reports predict that we should be OK Saturday but that rain might start on Sunday.
The track ascended steeply out of Portamarin and it was almost 9 Km before we found a place to break for second coffee, which was a necessity since the antihistamine pills for the bug bites made us both sleepy. Then we stopped for a third coffee just a few KMs down the road and some French fellow travellers observed that we were apparently ¨checking out all local the bistros" not doing the Camino! Seems like it sometimes.
We ran into a colorful pilgrim with a donkey, the first we had seen with a donkey, and David engaged him in conversation while Leslie discretely photographed him. He was pleased to talk about his experience, as he was returning to France after completing the pilgrimage and going on to Finisterre. His donkey was bleeding from its hindquarters, and he said that the donkey was attacked by wild dogs at Finisterre while he was sleeping in his camp in a field just a bit away from the donkey. We later saw our French friend Fabien travelling with her dog Belle, who (Belle) loves donkeys, but Fabien said the dog could not make friends with the donkey because the donkey had had such a bad experience with dogs so recently!
The road seemed to go up forever but we ran into our group of Canadian friends in Ligonde 18 KM out, where they were having wine after checking into the local albergue for the night. They invited us to join them in the main square for a celebration in Santiago on the evening of the 6th, and we said we would try to make it. We decided to have some wine and a salad with them to strengthen us for the last 8 Km or so into Palas de Rei. We had them call our hostel to advise that we would be late, and we did get in at about 5 PM pretty tired.
After showering and doing a quick wash of clothes, we went into town to get our sello from the local church, buy some orange juice for our protein shake breakfast, and get some more gauze bandages for Leslie´s injuries. We then had a quick meal and discussed plans for future walks, accommodations, and for reaching Santiago. We made arrangements to have a room with bath both about 20 Kms up for the next two days, but the second one will be a Casa Rural who will have to pick us up on the Camino, take us to the house, and get us back next morning. There is a shortage of rooms or even of sizable villages in this part of the Camino.
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