A walk in the rain to A Rua

Today we had our first rainy day, but the lovely thing was - we didn’t get wet!! That is, our feet, socks and insides of shoes stayed cosy and dry. It really was a very pleasant walk...the rain was mostly just little fuzzy droplets, and when occasionally it transformed to actual rain, it was so light it wasn’t soaking at all, plus for a lot of the time we walked through tree tunnels and under leafy canopies. So it was quite a beautiful walk! And it was clear on and off, and by the time we arrived here at 1.45 it had properly cleared up and was sunny.

There are SO many eucalyptus trees here...some in orderly plantations, in perfect rows, and many grown up wild, self-seeded and in great abundance, mixed with the native oaks and chestnut trees. When we walked in the wet leaves it smelt like an Australian bush walk!

So it was an easy 19 kms, undulating, and perfect walking temperature. A Rua is a tiny village. We stayed at this place last time, so we knew how to look for it (some people we talked to walked straight past, waiting for the “town”... in the last 5 years they have added a new wing of modern rooms and apartments round a pool which is where we are now...before we were upstairs in the old original stone house. Very easy and friendly, and they have a laundry so Amr is in the process of washing all our stuff before Santiago tomorrow, which is fabulous as I recall that there wasn’t one at all handy there...in fact I think we took a taxi to it!!! So we are all clean again.

Tomorrow we walk the last 20 kms into Santiago and spend 2 nights there. And we will meet our “family” there at 6 o’clock for a drink and dinner! We have another group at the moment we keep seeing these last few days - we are all booked with the same people, so are staying at the same accommodation and getting to know each other. Three women from Oregon, a family with 2 teenage girls from Denver, and 3 older women - 2 sisters with their sister-in-law, also the couple from Washington DC that we had dinner with 2 nights ago...so quite sociable, but we all also have plenty of downtime. So tomorrow the entry to Santiago!Read more