Walking with only street lighting or a head lamp to guide the way has its own beauty.

Half light

the early morning mist

and the brilliance of the early morning light

We passed through pretty villages

Through eucalyptus plantations that smelt like home

Along pretty country roads

Through many country towns

Along roads

Through the large town of Arzúa with its mix of the old

and the new

On paths through vine entangled trees

and chestnut groves.

Once we entered dairy country with the bit of rain that we had been having the local laneways became slushy with the distinct aroma of…well…dairy cows.

Disappointed Dave walked slowly past the bar decorated with bottles. He would love to be able to add his name to one and place it in the fence. But walking and beer don’t really go together and he still had a long way to walk. Disappointed Dave lingered, torn between conflicting emotions. Maggii had now disappeared around the bend in the street. Damn, he slowly moved on.

We walked on through interesting towns with novelty shops.

and cute laneways

We neared our destination. We didn’t realise that the Albergue we had chosen was approx 500 meters off the Way and downhill. We decided to take the chance. Wrong decision, We hadn’t booked and they were booked out. We trudged on back up the hill and back on our Way. Two more albergues. The first one I wasn’t impressed with so I went across the road. The second one looked empty with a sign to say wait here. For what and for how long? As we were leaving the hospitalero came from next door. I asked if he had wifi. Yes certainly, I asked if the showers were hot. The last albergue the shower water didn’t reach body temperature and I wanted a good shower. I didn’t think it was too much to ask for. Apparently it was. We were told with an outward wave of the hand to pist. We walked on through woods and lanes.

Until we came to what I would call an Aussie pub. The Andaina n the road coming into Santa Irene catered for pilgrims and made us feel right at home. I had the best shower that I had had for a long time and the best dinner which included Pimientos de Padron. So, so, nice.

When we finally stopped we had covered 30 kilometres, a lot more than we had intended. It now put us just 19 kilometres to Santiago and the Cathedral. We revised our plans and decided to walk in tomorrow a day ahead of schedule.