Torneiros

Day 9, Vigo to Redondelo is only about 11 miles, BUT ... some of the weather reports are predicting as much as 3 inches of rain in the afternoon. 4 of us decide sticking leaving early may be the safest plan. We settled on 6:30 am (no way was I agreeing to 4:30 start in pitch black).

It is dark as we head out along the waterfront, but at least we have city street lights for the first hour of walking. Cautiously but quickly, we rush to beat the rain. The city lights around the bay twinkle magically, and we greet a lot of early morning commuters.

The sun rises about 8:30 as we begin the very steep but short climb of this section. We're taking tiny steps and really leaning in, barely making any forward progress. Kiki's step tracker can't figure out what's going on and asks aloud if she's still walking. It would be funny if we weren't working so hard.

At the top of the climb, we can really relax because we know the majority of today's trek is a nice long flat hike on a wide forest path. Waterfalls, chestnuts, eucalyptus, and banana slugs.

There's a great view of the Puente De Rande suspension bridge and the famous mussels and oyster floating farms in Vigo Bay. Had some oysters, but gotta scout out some of those famous mussels!

Made it to Redondela before lunchtime and killed some time wandering around town finding statues.

Then the challenges began, and we put on lots of miles going back and forth across town as we struggled. If you could trace our path, you would think we were rats in a maze.

First, we thought we'd get lunch since we had an hour to check in. Forward 1/2 mile, but the restaurant was closed. Bactrack 1/2 mile to different restaurants, but the menu didn't look great. Decided to check on luggage (our delivery service couldn't deliver directly to our apartment, so we had to collect them at an albergue about 4 blocks away). Forward a block, but Albergue closed. Forward 4 more blocks to check out the location of the apartment. Light rain starts, and the tracker shows luggage has arrived, so back four blocks to albergue. Yay, we got luggage. Forward four blocks, running now because rain is getting heavier. Finally back 5 blocks to restaurant with odd menu because at least it's open. The maze completed, we enjoyed a late leisurely lunch. One of the items I ordered, a Korean pork roll, was delicious.

Tucked into our 2 bedroom apartment, Kiki and I were startled by sudden loud heavy rain and strong winds. What that meant for me was a washout on my plan to hike the Spiritual Variant after Pontevedra-- those mountain paths are known to get muddy and slippery and even if tomorrowwas dry, it still seemed too risky alone. So I spent the evening canceling and re-booking 4 nights of hotels to instead follow the standard route into Santiago.

All in all, it was a long day. Glad I had wandered out earlier and picked up dinner snacks to enjoy in the cute tiny apartment kitchen.

Today's journey 18km (11miles) plus side wanderings of about 7km. Completed 180 of 274 planned, plus sidetrips of 31km.Read more