Saturday 28th April 2018

30km (784 km)

Dan blog:

After a fantastic night’s sleep in the relative luxury of the NH Ourense and and even better breakfast we set off and were almost immediately overwhelmed by the wave of high fashion pilgrims out to do the last 100 km and collect their Compostela (certicates) … Pauline was not impressed, meantime I bask in the glory when they ask “Where did you start from?” Answer “Sevilla” and they assume that I did too! I don’t bother to correct them.

In any event it was a nice walk out of town, over the bridge and straight up into to the hills. 15 km in we stopped for a coffee and were enjoying our break when Marian arrived; it was great to see her one last time and we bid her a fond farewell with hugs all around.

8 km later we arrived in Cea, despite it being Saturday afternoon the place was “dead” quiet, but fortunately with some local knowledge we were directed to the one hot spot (the Vaticamos bar no less) where we met some fellow pilgrims and were treated to a great bocadillo y jamon con queso (ham and cheese sandwich) and coffee.
After a good break we headed off once more, bonus miles (8 km) for today but cutting the same from an otherwise epic day tomorrow. Our goal was Casa Casarellos… and on arrival we were very happy to have made the effort. “Wow” what a great casa; great hosts and a beautiful house and setting. The only downside was Pauline wanting her socks washed; this sent me to a traditional outdoor wash house to thrash her socks on the granite stones until they were finally clean and smelling of roses (it took a while, but I know I will be rewarded in heaven).
The Casa also has an “honesty bar”; alas this has not served us well as it has proved irresistible; unlike the swimming pool! Dinner meantime was also great so now it’s time for a whisky before bed in preparation for ~30 km tomorrow.

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