Day 30 – Plasa de Rei to Castaneda

 

I wanted to get up early this morning to get ahead of the large number of peregrinos in the town. The numbers I saw last night queueing outside the restaurants really surprised me and I didn’t want to be trying to get past bunches of them on the Camino.

It was a lovely clear morning; gone was the fog of previous mornings. The constellation of Orion was up on my left, with the plough and pole star on my right, just where they should be. Soon came the dawn, with gradual brightening of the sky, disappearing stars and then the sun’s rays on my back. At first, I crossed the road, to get out of the tree’s shadow, so that I could benefit from it’s warmth, but it wasn’t long before my jacket was off and I was seeking the shade to cool down.

Again today, it was beautiful walking through woodland that up until now has mainly been smaller oak trees but now there are lots of eucalyptus trees. 

These woodlands are interspersed with small villages and occasional town, like Melide,  this morning. Looking in the coffee shops, there are always pilgrims taking the opportunity to rest and replenish their energy reserves.

Today, as I came out of Melide, I caught up with a young couple who had brought their little boy with them. The guy (from Cornwall) was carrying a large rucksack and the mum (from Holland) was carrying the little boy on her back. I guess that he was about eighteen months and I’m sure that he would be quite heavy to carry! They said that they had started, like me, in St Jean Pied de Port and are hoping to walk to Finisterre and Muxia. Wow, that is some achievement! Especially for the child, to put up with riding on his mum’s back for 5 or 6 hours a day.

For those of you who are wondering about my boots, I had repaired both boots some weeks ago and although I do have to patch them up occasionally, they are in pretty good shape. They are not waterproof, but so as long as the weather holds, I should be fine. The last time I got soaked was about a week ago. Then, the albergue had a home made boot drier which worked brilliantly. The next day, they were perfectly dry.


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