Day 5 Rubiães to Valença, 18 km

Short, easy, often pretty day with terrifically inaccurate weather reports! I was the last one out of the albergue this morning. Despite their late hours and the many empty wine bottles in the kitchen - everyone else was out by 8:00. Almost all of us were doing short days so I’m not sure what the rush was!

My weather app promised clouds but no rain. Excellent! But I walked out the door into light rain that quickly turned into a downpour. Squelching shoes, ridiculously soaked gloves, damp everything. After 45 minutes or so the sun came out. I spent most of the next sunny hour warming up in a cafe. By the time I left it was spitting again. I tried not to think too much about my good waterproof gloves at home.

Not much to report from the walk. It was pleasant - in and out of forests, small hamlets, fields, tiny hills. There were some raging streams and serious puddles. The sky was capricious all day. When the sun was out even the unexciting bits of the Camino felt spectacular.

Best part of the walk was running into Florence and Yuning while I was stopped for second coffee in a kind of obscure bar. A tiny camino miracle. We had not seen each other yesterday or the day before. The terrace of the bar was not visible from the path and it didn’t really look like a normal place to stop. But I went in and they came along about 20 minutes later. They’ve gone on ahead and so I probably won’t see them again. There were lots of other peregrinos today, but no one I had met before.

I’m staying in Valença in a new private albergue inside the walled part of the town. I’m writing this from inside a kind of plywood bunk pod! Each bunk has curtains. The mattresses are a bit wider than normal and quite decent. The place is nice but it is also full and very loud right now. One woman in the lounge upstairs has been holding forth (on religion, philosophy, camino etiquette and hygiene, wartime gender politics and I’m not sure what else.
I had a great dinner at a restaurant about ten minutes walk south of the town walls. Fish, potatoes, salad. It’s the first salad I’ve found! Then ice cream in a very warm cafe!. And then it started to rain on my dry nighttime clothes so I just came back here!

Tomorrow I’m going to Porriño to another private albergue with curtains. Spain!Okumaya devam et