We had to leave the monastery by 8am. I was sharing a room with 9 other people, 7 of them being German, so I didn’t bother setting my alarm because I assumed they would be up early. I was wrong. At 8:10 everyone was still in bed. 

After walking over to Jenny and shaking her awake I stuffed all my belongings in to Bronson and managed to leave with -40 minutes to spare. 

We immediately went to a coffee place and sat there for about an hour taking photos of stray cats and watching all the other proper pilgrims start their journeys to get to the Albergues in time. 

While we were sitting there we got chatting to a girl who was walking to Santiago in one day. It was 60km. What a lunatic. Apparently she does marathons back home but even so, pretty impressive. 

After sheepishly looking at our 15km route we got up and left. 

It was another pretty cool route and the rain was holding off. It’s still relatively warm over here and when the sun comes out it is actually hot!

I noticed a bit of modern art as we were walking so I took a photo of it. 

It was an uneventful walk and the destination was Arzua. This would be the point where the Camino Frances would join our route and we would have to share the remaining 40km with even more smelly pilgrims. 

I say uneventful. We did see a real life ballchinian along the route.

We went to an albergue and it was packed full. The guy pointed to another one 50m away so we walked over and checked in and ended up having an entire 10 bed dormatry to ourselves! We were very lucky as this is a real choke point for the Camino. 

After a great night’s kip we awoke and made our way to a coffee shop. 

I had a chorizo tortilla and a coffee and it set me up for a good day.

The weather had different plans for me though. My day wasn’t going to be good, it was going to be wet. Very, very wet. We decided to buy some cheap ponchos just to give our wet weather gear a bit of a chance. Best purchase so far. 

We walked in the worst rain we have had since we have been here and I managed to stay mainly dry. 

There is a special feeling reserved for getting saturated through “waterproof” clothing while walking in the wind and rain and it isn’t a fun feeling I can tell you.

We had been walking for a little while and the wind had picked up. Occasionally a branch would just fall out of a tree and hit the ground with a thud. I was worried about one landing on us but then I remembered that Jenny has found 7 four leaf clover in the past few days so luck was on our side. Combined with pastor Steve’s blessing for me I’m pretty sure I will make it to Santiago unscathed. 

We stumbled across some funny shaped mushrooms.

I think Jenny has found herself a new hobby. Photos of mushrooms and stamp collecting. Man this girl has a wild side!! 

After carefully navigating round some downed electricity cables we came across a little taverna with a log burner in it. It really was a lovely break from the lashing rain and billowing wind. 

I drank a beer, Jenny a calimoacho and we sat and warmed up a bit.

When we left it was still hammering it down. We walked past a couple who had dragged their kid out for a walk. 

Now I’m not 100% sure but I reckon that kid was wandering along, cold, wet and tired and thinking “What is this shit? I was playing playstation half an hour ago and now I’m walking through the pissing rain! Take me home you pair of hippies” 

We took another little break in a bar to let the rain ease a bit.

After realising that it wasn’t going to stop we forced ourselves to carry on. There was a beautiful water feature at the end of a tunnel we walked through. I personally think they could have installed it in a more practical place but it was still lovely. 

We also walked past a rather unique garden display. Lots of old shoes filled with flowers and plants.

I haven’t heard of any pilgrims going missing on this section so I assume the shoes were donated.

At around 5pm (yes, we were incredibly slow today) we made our way into a bar for some food and drink. 

We noticed an albergue on the other side of the road that was becoming more and more inviting as the rain got heavier and heavier. 

After we had warmed up and eaten our food the thought of another 2km in the pissing rain was too much so we dived across the street and checked ourselves in. 

I’m writing this now as the rain is pounding and the wind is howling. I don’t mind it now though as I am inside, in bed, under a duvet with the radiators on. Now I know how the pilgrims of old would have felt. 

We were planning a bit of an early start tomorrow but I saw a sign at the entrance so I guess I’ll have to wait till 9 to leave.

Right. Tired now, going to sleep.

BUEN CAMINO