Day 31 – Castaneda to Perouzo

 

I was sharing a room with Bianca last night in a very small albergue. She was Spanish, although she very clearly told me that she was not Spanish but Basque! She spoke no English, but she was quite proficient with the Google Translate app. So, we managed to communicate a little. She even came to dinner with me because she learnt that I was eating ‘solo’. I wasn’t too impressed but it wasn’t too bad, as there were lots of distractions from the locals and other guests.

I had the local Galician vegetable soup again. The waitress left the huge serving bowl with me. I tried valiantly to eat as much as I could but had to give up after 3 bowls full. After that, I couldn’t finish my second course of chicken and chips. Oddly enough, I was able to eat the Santiago cake for dessert, along with a small glass of some spirit that I was meant to eat after each mouthful of cake? It did go down quite well.

Local cabbage used in the local soup

Bianca, along with other guests at the bar helped me to discover what the little buildings were, that I had seen all along the trail since we were in Galicia. I discovered that they were built to dry the grain once it has been harvested. They are called Horreos  and they are found in the north of Spain. I assume that this area has a higher rainfall and so they needed to find a way to dry their crops.

Horreo for drying crops

We were in a 2 bunk-bed room but, in all but one albergues I had stayed in, I found that they are running at half capacity due to COVID. I didn’t expect to share the room with anyone else but then I saw, through the window, a couple with a young child arrive. My heart sank at the thought of sharing this room with a family. Fortunately, there was a second room in the albergue and so the family took that. I saw them later at dinner. Their son was 4 years old and they were using a rugged push chair to transport him. They said that they had walked from Le Puy in France. Whilst they were walking through France, during July and August, they were camping and their son had plenty of other children to play with but not since they crossed into Spain. They said that it had gone well but, like the toddler in yesterday’s post, I can’t imagine him enjoying many hours in the push chair every day!

The sky was clear again this morning, but as I dropped into the first of seven river valleys on today’s walk, I felt the temperature drop and it became foggy. So, I zipped up my jacked and pulled my hat on. I crossed over the bridge and followed the path as it climbed up another hill, where I then got hot, so unzipped my jacket and took my hat off again. This process was repeated over each of the seven valleys. I don’t think I have experienced the distinct temperature changes quite like this before.

On the trail this morning I saw another buggy, much like you see being towed behind a bicycle, only this had four wheels and was pushed from behind. Or, I should say it would have been sold with four wheels, but now, one of the front wheels was missing! On the rough sections of the track (about 75%), the front end was tipped up in the air and only down again when on a smooth surface. I assume there was a child inside but I couldn’t see in well enough to be sure. What would it have been like inside?

And today, I noticed many dogs walking the Camino! The mind boggles! Whoever would think that a good idea? I can’t imagine other walkers would think it a good idea either when they step in the mess left by the dogs.

As I was walking in the early morning, I started to catch up with another walker. In this situation, I tend to reply on them to navigate by following the markers, or their GPS, and I just follow along. Suddenly this lead walker stopped and was looking around on the ground. Although he was French, I gathered that he was concerned at not seeing any Camino mark posts. I pulled out my phone and agreed that we had missed a turning about 50 meters before. As we back-tracked, we picked up another 4 walkers who were following us! Using the sat-nav, I got us back on track and we all carried on following each other.

I didn’t plan todays walk too well as I left the albergue at 6:40 and it was about 8am when I reached the first major town. All the coffee shops were full of peregrinos and the tracks ahead of me were full too. Apart from enjoying more solitary walking, I am severely irritated by people walking with metal tipped walking poles. They hit the hard surface with every footstep and so create this tap tap, tap tap. They don’t even use them to drive themselves along. Perhaps it gives them balance? It drives me mad and I walk as fast as I can to get away from them.

The eucalyptus trees that are common along this part of the camino

I only had another short walk today and although I had stopped for breakfast on route, I arrived at my albergue just after 11am. The owner, although not gruff, he was not very friendly either. He said I was too early and that I would have to wait 2 hours until the rooms were ready. Whilst I can understand that they need to get the place cleaned, I wasn’t going to wait around for 2 hours, so I left.

I walked another 8 km to the next big town (Perouzo) which would, I figured, would be very busy, but as I was still quite early, I should be able to find room in one of the many albergues. When I reached Perouzo, I found the large municipal albergue but it looked closed. I tried the next one but they said that they were full. I was trying not to get stressed at this stage and thinking that perhaps I had been a bit rash in leaving the previous albergue and my reservation.

There had been another albergue that I had passed on the way into town that had looked shut too, but I wasn’t sure. So, I retraced my steps and, fighting down the urge to run, I made it back to ’Albergue O Burgo’ and asked if they had any vacancies. He asked for how many? “una persona” I said a little desperately. “Si” he said, we have one place left. I punched the air in relief! Later, speaking to a bunk-bed mate, he said that a week ago when he had tried to book a space for friend, he was told they were fully booked!