Albergue Guiana was excellent, especially the Velux window 😊. Watching the swifts was really special.

Unfortunately, the route out of town took us past some pretty dilapidated buildings. These are invariably covered in graffiti and look awful. It’s hard to imagine these buildings remaining in such a state in Oxford for example where developers would have pulled them down and erected something in their stead that made them a decent return. Here in Spain it seems that doesn’t happen and buildings are simply allowed to decay.

They also seem to have a penchant generally for graffiti and walls, street furniture etc are fair game everywhere.

I gave up recording these but this next one does irritate.

Perhaps our budding graffiti artists learn their trade in Spain.

It was nice to see some storks en route.

According to Wikipedia stork nests can grow to over two metres in width and up to three metres deep. Impressive. It’s a shame that we don’t have any in the uk.

Typical scenes from today

As we approached Villafranca, Dorothy’s hip started playing up, plenty of pain, no clicking but still, not good. This happened a couple of days ago so we transferred the heavy stuff out of Dorothy’s bag and into mine. Yesterday was tough; today was much easier but a 10+ kg is much tougher on the feet which meant that when an ALSA bus pulled up alongside us 4km from our destination we decided unanimously to jump on.

Do we care? Nope. How are we going to manage tomorrow? Does Dorothy’s hip pain mean that we need to abort?

We’ve decided to continue but Dorothy shouldn’t be carrying anything and ideally I should carry only what we need. So, we’ve been in touch with a bag transit company and we’re going to pack pretty much everything in my bag which we’ll leave for the van. I’ll carry mum’s pack with some water, fruits and crunchie bars. Hopefully, this will work well and we’ll get to the end of tomorrow’s walk in good health. If mum’s hip plays up, we will then probably have no choice other than to abort, catch a bus to Santiago and head for home.

Interestingly, the extra effort has raised my resting pulse from mid 50s to mid 70s which suggests that all this walking carrying a heavy pack is definitely having an effect on my cardiovascular system. I’ve taken another COVID test just to check that my runny nose, aches and pains are purely exercise related and it’s come back negative so on we go.

Buen camino

Addendum 😊

It’s 8 o’clock in the morning and we’ve been forced to abort. Dorothy’s hip has been playing up and it’s become clearer why I’ve been feeling under the weather, think D&V rather than COVID. So, we’re having some toast and chamomile tea in a small bar, we have bus tickets to A Coruña with subsequent train tickets to Santiago to be followed (hopefully) early this evening with plane tickets to Gatwick. If all goes smoothly we’ll be home before midnight. 🤞