Salceda to Lavacolla

2nd last day, 19.3km, worst weather yet. Sloshing wet feet for 6 hours. 460m ascended, 680m descended.

It was rainy and windy at breakfast time so we delayed departing till 8:30 when visibility was sufficient without a headlamp.

Then it was head down and walk through some appalling weather: rain with very few breaks, and wind gusting very strongly at times. In some of the eucalyptus forests the wind roaring through the trees was thunderous.

Speaking of eucalyptus, we saw some very large, both in diameter and height, older growth stringybark trees, especially in the latter half of the walk and near the airport.

We’d had a good breakfast so decided we’d cover 10km before stopping to eat. In the end it was at Amenal at the 13km mark that we stopped for coffee and a somehow disappointing bocadillo de jamon. Had been hoping for a burger or spaghetti bolognese but the cook was off duty.

From there it was a 2km muddy creek of a track up to the Santiago airport runway, rising about 100m vertical.

The Camino took us round the end of the runway and wandered along for a while till we reached our hotel, the Garcas, in Lavacolla, about 11km from Santiago cathedral. Tomorrow’s walk is also expected to be a rainy one, but it will be shorter.

Now to find some way to get our boots somewhat dry. A shakedown in the bathtub followed by inverting them on top of the heating convector on the wall looks promising.Read more