Negreira to A Picota – 30km, 7.75 hours, Tuesday, 1 October

I misunderstood the app we have that is supposed to guide us on our way.  It looked like we were supposed to have a 24.5km day today to get ready for a tougher 28.4km walk tomorrow. It turned out that the app fooled me.  24.5km from Negreira was actually the point when we needed to decide if we wanted to climb a little longer and a little higher over the mountain to get to A Picota (where our reserved hotel was) or towards Lago where an albergue bunkbed and communal showers awaited. We still had the climb to do as well as 5.5km in distance.  It was disheartening but we dealt with it as we always do.  Head down, start walking.  At least it will make tomorrow’s walk shorter. 

Complicating the distance issues were two other factors.  First, the trail was very hilly.  There were a lot of steep ups and downs.  It was hard to keep a steady pace.  Also, the forecast of a little rain lasting all day was pretty spot on. We alternately had a fine mist swirling around; a light drizzle that didn’t even need a poncho; a heavy drizzle that, at minimum, needed a poncho draped over the head and back; a light rain that required the poncho; and a heavy rain that required a poncho, gaiters and a lot of patience. Amazingly, at the 9km point on the trail, just as we started walking again after breakfast #2, the sun came out and the rain stopped for about 15 minutes. We were fed, in sunshine and in heaven for that 3% of the walk.

On one lovely wooded trail, we passed by an elderly Spanish man who was out for a walk with his dog.  He wished me a nice, smiley buen Camino after I said buenos días to him.  Melanie was about 20m behind me and they had a similar exchange but then started chatting to her “Where are you from?”  “Singapore?!?! Muy lejos! (Very far away). With that, he pulled an apple from his coat pocket and passed it to the first Singapore he ever met.  The Spanish people are so nice, Melanie ate the apple  even without checking the apple for needle punctures, foreign objects inside it, etc.  

We also met another elderly man walking his dog too (it must be a thing here).  I also said “buenos días” to him too.  He replied to me in Spanish  “ No, tienes que decir “días malos”, Este es un día terrible.”  That means “ No, you have to say “bad days.” This is a terrible day.”. He then laughed but warned that the rains will be much heavier tomorrow.   He cracked me up.

Four cyclists passed us on a hill today, coasting upwards and making a hell of a racket.   They were on e-bikes. I thought we got rid of all those jokers.

We much preferred watching all the cows we saw today, compared to e-bikers.  I guess we are in the dairy area of Galicia as so many farms had decent size herds. 

We had dinner in the hotel tonight so that we didn’t have to face the rain again. It was quite decent but as we were sitting down, we saw a young Asian woman who appeared to be a pilgrim and about to eat by herself.  Melanie chatted with her a minute then came over to the bar to order her food. I asked where the woman was from but Melanie couldn’t tell from her accent.  As we often do, we invited her to join us at our table which she gladly agreed to so she could have a bit of easy conversation.  It turns out her name is Germain, which seemed almost pertinent to me (all my English teacher friends just rolled their eyes and my Spelling teacher friends gave me an F).  Better still, Germain is from Singapore (with an accent Melanie couldn’t place).  Don’t worry hash friends, Melanie has already recruited her to a run.  She works fast!

A long rainy day does lend itself well to many stories or any good photos so that’s it for today.

Peace y’all

Goodnight George and Leo