28km (773.3km)
Tuesday July 4 2017
Last night the hospitalero prepared a huge barbecue with salads and of course chips and lots of red wine for the seven of us staying in the Albergue. Three of the group were Spanish who spoke no English and were very apologetic about their lack of English, one even said he was embarrassed! This struck me as odd as it surely should be us English speakers with no Spanish who should be apologising for our lack of Spanish when in Spain. Two of the group spoke both languages so they were able to translate back and forth, the Catalonians seem very pro Scottish, strangely enough…
This morning I was a little concerned by the lack of food in my backpack as my guide book said to stock up in Baamonde (yesterday’s lunch spot) for today…I’d missed this important info. I set out a little later in the hope of finding an Albergue that would serve breakfast and as luck would have it I passed one at 7:30 but it was closed. As I walked away feeling hungry a woman shouted to me to say she was just about to open up so the day got off to a good start with a huge breakfast. The morning walk in the cool temperatures was lovely and the walk through the woods in the mist was a welcome break before the hours on the Tarmac.
Arriving in Sobrado I whisked out my guide book to find directions to the Albergue before realising it was the huge monastery looming large ahead. There are 120 beds and they have all been allocated, and so it begins just like on the Camino Frances last year suddenly the atmosphere of calm and peace has evaporated. I caught sight of some clean pilgrims, with small day packs examining the beds and complaining to each other and to the monks that the beds didn’t look very clean, they probably thought similarly about us walkers who are on day 28 of the walk! A huge group of school children are running amok as I write. Much screaming and yelling with brightly coloured back packs everywhere. They may be on the equivalent of the Duke of Edinburgh and they all see, to be having a great time so as long as they are in a different wing of the monastery everyone should be happy. So tomorrow is the penultimate day, I looked at my feet earlier and am really now just keeping everything crossed that I can eek out two final days walking from them before giving them a well earned rest and time to recover.
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