Melide

We have been having problems finding rooms for the last week. I think it’s partly the result of more people wanting private rooms because of covid. It’s also that there are just plain more people walking as we get closer to Santiago de Compostela. Several different Camino routes merge into the route we are on in this last part. The Camino guides and apps break the entire walk into “stages” which are roughly a day’s walk, ending at Compostela. Most stages are between 11 and 15 miles long, and end at a town big enough to handle the demand. The couple of guides we have been using use roughly the same stages, which tends to concentrate people in the same towns. This becomes an issue when suddenly there are more people using the same stages. We were not enjoying and have not been comfortable wearing masks while walking with so many people. So we decided to get off the normal stages, and to start and finish the rest of our walks in the middle of the commonly recognized stages. I know, I know, I never go against the grain. But we took a taxi 7 miles past the hordes of people walking out of Portomarin this morning, and started our 14 mile walk in relative solitude. And it was great, and we got rooms in the off-stage towns for the rest of the Camino, and everything is great!

Started seeing some strange small structures as we walked into Galacia. See the picture below. Could not figure out what they were about. Turns out that they are used for drying corn.

Hard to believe we’re in the last week of our walk across Spain.Read more