Seeing as there were so few people in my albergue, I had a leisurely start. I then went back to the same café I left the night before, for a good cup of coffee and a bite to eat. Then in came the gentleman who shared a room with Karen and I in Melide, the man with the home made backpack and gear, so we had coffee together. It was nice seeing him again, and he left before me so I didn’t know if I would see him again. Then when I went to pay, it turned out he had paid for me … Gracias y buen camino, José!
I’ll let the photos tell the story of the rest of the day.
I saw the young family with the little boy who shared my albergue, and all was very zen apart from that stupid message that some stupid person stupidly had written on someone’s property with a permanent marker they had stupidly brought with them for the sole stupid purpose of stupid vandalism. As you can probably tell, I’m not a fan – take only photographs and leave only footprints! (But by all means leave money too and add to the local economy.)
In Pedrouzo, the last night before Santiago, Karen and I were again in the same albergue, which was nice and airy. I was planning on going to the restaurant that serves steak-on-a-stone with salad, and nothing else, but it was way too hot to go there. Instead we found a pulperia with a nice enough menu and had a few drinks and a light meal there. We went to a shop to get some snacks for the last day’s walk, and then had a sensible and early night.
I think the heat was wearing people out, because sometimes Pedrouzo can be one big party, with pilgrims looking forward to and dreading the end of their journey in equal measure. In our albergue at least it went quiet and though the room was hot, we had the window open so we could breathe. My sleeping bag was definitely too hot!
Somewhere Slowly 