Phew! The last stretch up to the Fonsagarda was somewhat steep as my aching Achilles tendons can attest. It lasted a little under 600m, we climbed 130m and my Garmin tells me that my heart rate reached 151.

That said, a hot shower and a substantial menu peregrino with half a bottle of decent red wine goes a long way to helping with recovery.

Back to earlier matters.

Dinner last night was excellent. The small hotel we stayed in was a real delight. We had dinner in the courtyard area, mum, myself and an Italian civil lawyer called Rodolfo.

The lady running the place was very pleasant and gave all three of us a cuddle at the end of the meal 😊. Normally I’d run a mile but she caught me first, completely unaware of what she was about to do.

We both slept well and were up a little after Rodolfo to grab a quick breakfast of coffee and toast and marmalade before leaving just after the sun rose at 7:35.

Rodolfo slept in the hotel because the albergue was full with 8 or so pilgrims having to sleep in a large tent in the field alongside. We saw the results of that this morning as what seemed to be a horde of cheerful pilgrims made their way in front of and behind us as we climbed steeply away from the sleeping village.

After passing through a small wood we came across some colourful bee hives.

And here’s mum looking resplendent and determined in her tight fitting shorts.

The walking passed quickly today. Lots of undulations and one steep climb up to some very impressive windmills saw us leave Asturias and enter Galicia.

As you can see from the sign, the fan of the scallop shell is pointing in the direction we need to go. It’s been the opposite in Asturias – confusing n’est ce pas.

As with earlier days the paths and hedgerows are full of interesting flowers.

Butterflies were in abundance and one particularly fierce looking chap was spotted scuttling across the path in front of us.

Does anybody have any idea what it is?

Fonsagarda finally appeared on the horizon after one particularly convoluted stretch

but we didn’t expect to have to drop into a valley immediately before the town only then to have to climb almost straight up again. The early pilgrims must have had some fairly impressive calf muscles.

Here’s mum just starting the descent.

and here’s the same young lady having just arrived at the albergue.

Surely not the same woman 🤔.

An early night I think. Breakfast starts here at 6 a.m. and I’m hoping to be away fairly early. Tomorrow’s walk is a little longer than today with one particularly steep descent followed by a matching ascent. There’s nowhere to stop for coffee (and no food at all) for the first 12km so we’ve bought some bread, avocado and fruits which we’ll have on our nice new seating pads courtesy of Menna.

We’ve recalculated our itinerary so we should be in Santiago next Wednesday in time to pick up our second Compostela on Thursday before our flight home on Friday.

From our regular chats and texts it seems that everyone at home is fine. We hear from Eleanor every night around 9:30 our time – she’s clearly enjoying herself but as she pointed out last night, Anwen doesn’t need her at all. What a pair.

Buen Camino