27.5km (663.3km)
Friday 30 June 2017
The walk this morning left the coast behind by way of a few modest climbs giving way to some more strenuous ones and indeed giving a taste of the steeper mountains awaiting us in the next few stages. Robyn and Carol took the road to Lourenza, to avoid Robyn slipping on her bruised elbow – they spent the day fending off helpful motorists who were intent on telling them they were not on the Camino…I stuck to the official route which promised at least some time off the roads. The rain fell for almost all of the day but the spells of dry, with the sun shining over the rolling hills and larger hills in the background made everything manageable. Conditions today were particularly rural making refuelling almost impossible but as luck would have it an enterprising family in Gondan had opened up a small cafe in what appeared to be their lounge…a large slice of toffee cake and a large cafe con leche and I was on my way. After being too optimistic regarding the weather and trying to walk without waterproofs I decided that it was safer just to keep them on for the duration of the day.
I was patching up my feet quite late on in the day when a big white van with a Camino Shell on it stopped and out jumped a young German pilgrim. The van driver was carrying his bag and he deposited him in a nearby Albergue before deciding that they should look for a better one…I asked the German what was going on and he explained that there is a free service in the whole Camino for ailing pilgrims; these white vans come and take you wherever you want to go apparently…now there’s an idea….
We arrived here and I had been instructed to call the pension owner when I was nearby. This all worked out well, given that I talk Spanish with no verbs! We are in an apartment which is quite useful for washing, breakfast etc. We went out for the usual menu Del dia and when we returned we couldn’t get into the room. I had visions of this being some sort of a scam but it seemed unlikely that anyone would want to steal anything belonging to any of us. I called without my verbs and proceeded to say the same ‘clave porto no function’ with the pension owner saying over and over that she didn’t understand. Finally, using google translate, I managed to convey to her that we needed her to come and open the door. Half an hour later she appeared in a furious mood, tried the door and she couldn’t open it with our key either but her master key worked, which somehow she managed to convey meant she had just wasted a journey to get us into the room, we were all very confused by her anger. She remained furious with us and then told us to not shut the door until we were leaving tomorrow, as I say we have nothing worth stealing and we have now left the door to the apartment open, if someone steals my boots I will have a valid reason to stop 🙂
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