22.5km (561.8km)
Monday 26 June 2017
Last night the hospitalero said we should avoid the official Camino route and take the coastal route, I decided that I’d stick to the official route bearing in mind what happened last time I took the coastal option. This morning it was raining and the visibility was about 10m so I decided there was definitely no point in taking the harder, but shorter, coastal option. I set off with Robyn and Carole, had a quick breakfast, then off we headed on a different route to everyone else…it was extremely steep and when I looked at my GPS I realised that the route on it was the coastal one and we were getting farther and farther from the coast with each step up. The route was rough under foot and at times the grass was waist high. I had a bad feeling that the coastal route has become the official route and this one that we were on was now not used. After a couple of hours I became increasingly concerned as the way markers were so few and far between. I consulted the dripping wet guide book and in a small aside it said that taking the official route was not recommended as it is poorly marked and not maintained, yes it was a bit late to read this as we commuted through over grown paths in very poor visibility. I kept kicking myself that I hadn’t checked the guide book the night before, as usual. Anyway we didn’t get lost, the way marking was ok and the gloom didn’t dampen our spirits at all. The only part of the day that was scary for me was coming across four huge sheep guard dogs. These were not collies but evil looking things with huge teeth and standing at about the height of a calf. If I’d been on my own I would have retraced my steps back to the other route (probably a 15k detour) but because I was with Robyn and Carole I tried to be brave (staying extremely close to Robyn who had the dogs snapping at her heals). Apparently one shouts at angry dogs but I just can’t bring myself to and walk along with my head down…I really doubt I’ll ever use my Dog Protection Spray! Anyway an unapologetic shepherd appeared and the dogs didn’t bite us but I was very shaken and didn’t feel very brave :(. Robyn and Carole, who haven’t got a pathological fear of dogs, said they were also pretty frightened and Robyn thought one of the dogs was going to bite!
The rest of the day continued without incident, the rain continued to fall, my newest pair of goretex boots soaked through and even my Arctery’x waterproofs weren’t perfect – but much more preferable to walking in 30 degrees. Tonight we are in a small Albergue, it’s 8:40 so time for bed. Just had a Vino de Verano; red wine with lemonade, which is rather odd but quite nice too. More rain for the next five days so we need to stock up in newspapers for the boots. Another short hop tomorrow 🙂
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