Melide

Last night we bumped into the couple from Rio who informed us that a cyclone was about to hit the coast near Santiago at 8am in the morning and to expect alot of heavy wind and rain.

We got what we paid for in the alburgue, ie. free...it was very very ordinary. We got to bed at 9pm and after all the talking, playing games on mobiles phones and the last of the peregrinos coming in from dinner we probably got to sleep at midnight. I conjured up my courage and spanish and told old mate beside me ´Domir hora, ruido telefono´(sleep time, noisy phone) !!

So at about 5am in the morning we woke to people starting to pack up and decided now was a good time to get out of this smelly crappy alburgue. We agreed that its pensionas from here on!

We left the alburgue at about 5.45pm with headlight and torch, walked straight into dense forest and uphill for about 2 hours. The wind was insane, and actually a bit scary through the pine forests as some sticks and small branches were coming down. We stopped outside a lone cafe/bar at Gonzar that was closed and waited there for shelter. Finally it opened at 8am and washed our faces as they were covered in dirt. Had nice coffee made by an old unfriendly man and ordered takeaway chorizo and cheese bocadillas. The rain started around 8.30am, and stayed raining and windy for hours. We ate while we walked, and finally stopped at Palas de Rai at 11.45am after 27km. It was early and the town was pretty ordinary and didn´t want to hang out here for the rest of the day, so we stopped at a barcafe for coffee, ate our other bocadilla, massaged our feet, replaced bandaids etc, and powered onto Melide. It was beautiful countryside, walking through back lanes of farms. Apple and pear trees just grow wildly on the road side and so do the chestnut trees, in some spots we just crunch over fallen apples that fill the roads. Finally the rain eased up a fair bit, and the path was flat and nice to walk on.

Stopped again in a tiny village, to have a little drink in a cafebar run by a very young couple who spoke a bit of English, a pleasant suprise. There, we run into Hombre and dog, who we met in Tricastella. Hombre is about 16 years old and is from Paris. He walked from Paris and found the dog in a Spanish town called Burgos. It was so funny watching him curse at the dog in French, when the dog was Spanish. He purchased an Ostrich Egg at the bar, for some reason there were some for sale. So, Hombre, and dog, set off also to Melide, carrying an Ostrich Egg.

Hombre and dog

Arrived into Melide at about 4.30pm after walking a mamoth 44km through the edge of a hurricane. Suprisingly, apart from feet that felt like stepping on razor blades, we seemed ok.

Found a pensiona, for 40 euros, brand spanking new appliances, very nice. Enjoyed a glass of wine at their trendy bar with a plate of tapas. Slept like babies.