Orosa

A hotter day today. Leaving the pension was hard as it was so beautiful and I do love the sound of water - which was everywhere.
The first few kilometres were reasonably easy / some beautiful scenery of course and interesting churches.
We stopped in Furelos where Happy cow found us a fab vegetarian orientated cafe, run with love by a couple of Camino aficionados - they run the cafe for about 8 months a year and then walk caminos the rest of the time (as well as taking a well earned break as they don’t take any time off during the season).
The food was great - I had houmous and padrón peppers as well as a very good coffee.
Then on through Melide - famous for its octopus - towards Ribadiso. Apart from a brief stop for fruit at an organic food truck (I had raspberries and blackberries which had been picked from their next door field) it was what seemed like a long and fairly steeply undulating path.
We were often walking through eucalyptus forests interspersed with picturesque villages.
I was tired and found the last 10k or so quite hard but still loved it. I ended up ‘counting’ - my way of dealing with long distances when I’m tired, but towards the end met Susie, an American lady who was going at least 3 k further. I felt very relieved when I crossed a bridge to find the pension on the other side, although I was sad not to get to talk more with her.
Caroline has been struggling today with her ankle so it’s been a very hard day for her.
The pension is great, with a lovely swimming pool but the food options (or actually the only food available) is very limited. This is not really a village and barely even a hamlet. There is one restaurant which clearly has the local monopoly and is also trying to host a wedding so the staff are under pressure and are honestly quite rude and unpleasant. The food is okay but requires a bit of cobbling to create a reasonably sustaining veggie option and it’s expensive. Not our best evening but the situation is still lovely.
Managed to use the washing machine - first time in nearly 6 weeks (have been hand washing in a variety of detergent substitutes) which was unreasonably exciting and as the weather is beautiful it’s all dry too!
Also paddled in the river (was promised a swim but it’s way too shallow) and swam in the pension pool. So a good afternoon all in all - just need to gear up for tomorrow now!
Finished my evening up with a tot of raspberry liqueur - bought at the organic food truck. Home made and luckily not too strong but not sure I want to carry it again tomorrow as it’s in a glass bottle and quite heavy as a pilgrim luggage item. Still very delicious and not sure I can really leave it behind - it’s just that, as I think I’ve said before, every gram counts.Read more