It’s only 16:43 but we’ve reached out destination for the day and we’ve stopped in a very pleasant traditional hostel/hotel. It’s a little more expensive than usual (€50 rather than the expected €35-40) but it provides a peregrino menu and breakfast is included.

Today has been a little shorter than recent days. We’ve been walking 30 km+ every day for nearly a week now and it’s told on our feet and knees. According to the markers, after today’s 26 km we’ve got a little over 58 km left to Santiago. This is now eminently achievable. Mum’s knee is nicely strapped up, we’re going to lather our feet in ibuprofen gel and we should be well set for a good day’s walking tomorrow.

Onto the pictures.

Starting out, and to prove that mum can still stand after yesterday’s shenanigans.

The path today was again through very lush, fertile farmland. Most farms appear to have the rather attractive brown dairy cows that we’ve seen everywhere. Mum’s not sure on breed, she reckons it’s a local breed a bit like Jersey. Every farmyard has at least one dog, usually two or three. There’s always at least one very large breed, a large Alsatian or a very big version of Bob with a huge head and standing perhaps a head higher.

They’re beautiful animals and you’ll often find them fast asleep on the road outside the farmhouse. There are cats everywhere, usually small, presumably kept exclusively for mice and rats.

Bird life is extensive. We’re out of stork country it seems but there are robins, blackbirds and sparrows in every hedgerow. Chickens run riot on the roads, in the farmyards and in the rough ground, too wild to call a garden, surrounding every house.

Every village house has its vegetable area. Onions and garlic are thriving, potatoes and brassicas are in and doing well, it’s great to see. Mum and I are looking forward to getting the allotment really productive this year and I’m going to try to get some shiitake mushrooms going in the garden. It’s a shame that D’overbroecks is getting in the way, but it’ll top up the bank account 🙂.

We keep seeing these everywhere.

I finally asked a Spanish local outside one of the albergues what they were for. They’re often near the burial grounds

so mum suggested that they were the pet equivalent. The pollinating insects hypothesis doesn’t fly with the wooden slat variety (note the clever pun 🤗). It seems that the Dutch guy was correct. They’re used for drying maize and in the case of O Cebreiro and villages up in the mountains generally, they’re used for curing meat and cheese.

We came across some more tractors

More statues of pilgrims

And, some large ants 🤔

Finally, someone has clearly got into the spirit of the Camino.

This is our current situation 😊.

We’ll have menu peregrino shortly. I’ll read another Robert Heinlein novel while mum tucks into Grisham. No accounting for taste 😨.

We’ll get another 11 hour sleep and with only 58 km left we’ll get cracking in the morning.

Buen Camino