Walk to Melide

A good shorter walk today, 16.4 kms, and no noticeably strenuous ups and downs. Still the pretty scenery and tree tunnels. And the weather has been kind!! Just cloudy today, and a cool wind...we had jackets on all the time..very pleasant. And we have gone back to wearing shorts, now that it’s not so cold and could rain..it is much preferable to have wet legs than to have wet pants. But we may be lucky..tomorrow is an even shorter day and rain is not expected to start till the afternoon...

So now we are at Melide, a busy small town. Checked into our hotel and all clean and washing done. Checking in is always a mystery...sometimes they want one passport, sometimes 2 (and they write all details, DOB etc), and sometimes no passport required...and it’s not dependent on the higher status or category of hotel as far as I can see...! Today was a one passport day. Yesterday was no passport...once they had our name, we were ticked off and given a key and times for dinner and breakfast, and wifi code! Truly a mystery!

One bad news..last night I had a bedbug....only one seen..as soon as I felt the itch I knew and turned on the light (had not yet been asleep so hadn’t been dark for very long)...and a search revealed only the one...any others had not yet had a chance to come out from hiding...anyway, we are now prepared and got our silk sleeping sheets, left the lights on and slept with eyeshades, after spraying the beds and bags..and leaving everything zipped up. No further problem, and in fact slept well as took a phenergan for the reaction! We told the hotel in the morning without any song and danceso they can decontaminate the room..it’s a really nice place and well run...this is just the hazard of these places where people come through each day, and have sometimes also stayed at not so good albergues and picked them up. Meanwhile I have an itchy and large reaction on my thigh and we are paranoid now and want to keep using the silk sheet bags and leave on the lights.

Had fun walking today...we have got used to the larger number of people, and some are fun. There is a group of Irish who are always chatty and lovely - it was an Irishman who took the photo of both of us yesterday in the trees. And today we got talking to an Italian couple...they are a Camino romance - they met a few weeks ago at Puente La Reina. Judy and Dorothy had been walking with them yesterday and told us about them, so when we saw them today we got chatting and continued the story.

We arrived at Melide fairly early, so stopped and had a little lunch - pulpo and a glass of Alberiño, followed by a coffee and Cola Cao. It is my favourite hot chocolate...they just fill a glass or cup with hot frothy milk and give you the sachet to stir in. While there we talked to a Spanish young woman we had seen on and off, very friendly and knowledgeable, and found out she was a guide for a group...was herding people, and gave them meeting points (this was one of them) as obviously they all walk in their own time...quite a job. She was Basque and worked for a Basque travel company.

So now we are relaxing..not keen to go out on the town. Amr says it is Spain’s National day, but there is no visible sign that we have noticed of revelry! Maybe life on the Camino just continues as normal...they feed and house us! I think this wifi is good, but will do photos separately.Read more