Quite an eventful day today. 

The rain has officially started. We had a scare a few weeks ago but it never materialised. Today wasn’t the same. It poured down for most of the morning and my weather app currently looks like this.

Fortunately we met a girl with an iPhone and her weather app said there was going to be some sun during the week so we all decided to go off of that instead.

Breakfast was at 7 and consisted of toast, jam, cereal and coffee. The guy that ran the place was truly lovely. He was friendly and made done good grub for us. I went to shake his hand to say goodbye and he gave me a hug. Great start to the day.

We left in the rain and headed off for a rather difficult walk. It was through the coastal forest. Here is an elevation profile.

It was tough going and because it had been raining quite hard and the paths were muddy. Everytime we got to the bottom of one of the valleys there was a torrent of water that we had to cross. A few of the other pilgrims had turned back but we blasted through. 

On the first one we took our boots off to cross through it. I left mine on one side and got across then asked Jenny to throw my boots over. Well, she said she was rubbish at throwing and she didn’t disappoint. 

First one was great, straight into my hands. The second one was impressive but for a different, unintentional reason. 

She did a couple of practice swings and in the last one released my boot straight towards the water. It basically went straight down. I don’t know quite what happened but my boot hit the middle of the stream and bounced off the water and crashed into the bank on my side. 

Once I had stopped laughing I went over to my boot and found that it was still bone dry inside. I don’t know how she did it but she skimmed my boot better than I can skim stones. 

I gave her 10 pilgrim points for that effort. 

While we were walking down one of the paths we noticed another pilgrim barebacking the Camino without and walking poles. I’d say she was at least 3 times faster than me. She shot past like she was on skates with her cape billowing behind her. 

We got back up to a peak, patted a couple of dogs then made our way down the last one. 

I’m glad we didn’t take the road like a lot of the other pilgrims did. The beach we can’t to was rather spectacular. This one was s stoney beach and the waves were big. 

The noise that they were making as the broke over the pebbles was a bit mesmerising. Every time I think I’ve seen everything the Camino has to offer she ups the stakes and shows me something new.

I absolutely love it.

After playing “throw small rocks at a bigger rock” with Jenny and another girl we just met we headed to the village that housed our albergue for the night. 

Now I have stayed at some lovely places and I have stayed at some not so nice places. I’ve never stayed at a place where my first thought was “what a shit hole” 

I had to remind myself that I was paying €5 to stay here. At least it has running water I guess.

No toilet roll though.

We met a couple of girls there and we all went out for a drink and something to eat. It turned out to be a really lovely evening. 2 more fleeting friendships to add to the list.

I didn’t write that quote on that rock. You wouldn’t catch me writing that nauseating nonsense. I would of drawn a willy or something.

Does make a nice photo though.

Right, tired now. 

BUEN CAMINO