12th June

12th June
Aroxica to Sobrado dos Monxes 15k

It's freezing!  I haven't had my jacket off all day and it's hard to get warm.  Occasionally the sun comes out which is nice but not for long enough.

The way today was mostly lovely country paths and lanes again.  We did quite a bit of climbing again today and reached the highest point of our journey.  We then walked for a while on the road before descending into a lovely little town which is where we're staying.  It has an ancient monastery which is now a massive albergue with 120 beds.  Could be a noisy night in there.  We're now down into the 60's kms before Santiago.  It's hard to believe we're this close and the start of our pilgrimage seems like an age ago.

11th June

11th June
Baamonde to Roxica 25k

It was very cold this morning and we had to move quickly to warm ourselves up.  It was a really lovely walk on country lanes through a few pretty villages and flat for the early stages.  The first 15k went quickly. The sun came out and warmed us just enough to be comfortable.  We found a bar that wasn't mentioned in the guide book and decided to stop for coffee.  It was a sanctuary and had a little private albergue that's brand new.  It's a shame we didn't know this place existed as it would have been a great place to stay. A little while later we started a climb that wasn't too bad but went on for almost 4k.  We walked through some countryside that was very familiar as we could have been in Stanthorpe in Queensland.  That seemed quite odd. 

The last few k seemed to go on but we finally very gratefully arrived at our destination.  All in all a good day.

10th June

10th June
Vilalba to Baamonde 20k

Lovely flat walk today.  Mostly country side with the odd village along the way.

We started out with Jon and Beate on a fairly chilly and windy morning.   It didn't take too long to warm up and before too long we needed to stop to take off a layer of clothing.  It also didn't take too long before we started catching up with quite a few others.  We found Karen from Germany then Edgar and before long we caught up with the Italian battalion, a group of 7 Italians.  The eldest is 79 and the youngest is 68.  We've been passing Camino pleasantries with them for a few days now but today was the first day we really had a conversation with them.  It was a great conversation and they were able to give us a heap of information on the next adventure that Fuzz and I have planned as they have already done it.  It was great because we were wavering a bit so they've put us firmly back on track.

We eventually stopped for coffee in a bar and we bumped into Alan a Swiss guy we met what seems like an age ago.  It was so nice catching up with him.  We all stopped for a break at a pretty place and shared a snack.  I really enjoy days like today. 

9th June

9th June
Abadin -Vilalba 20k

We had a lovely flatish walk through the countryside today.  Nice temperature for walking.  A little windy but mostly comfortable.  We walked with Jon and Biata again and we seem to have formed a little group.

We found our accommodation without any problem and found a nice bar too.  We decided to have a drink after checking in and dropping off our gear.  We had a great time.  The barman treated us like famous people and we had to have lots of photos.  He insisted we all go behind the bar with him for some of the photos and it was quite a laugh.   He kept on bringing out food for us to eat.  Just little snacks but I understand why the Spanish don't want to eat dinner until 8pm.  We won't want to eat much tonight.

8th June

8th June
Lourenza to Abadin 25k

Today Fuzz, Jon, Biata.and I set off after a meagre breakfast from our dodgy pension.  After a few nights of very dodgy albergues Fuzz and I had hoped a pension might be a bit of relief.  Jon and Biata thought the same and joined us but it was only slightly better than the previous nights so we were glad to get going this morning.

We climbed and climbed all day.  Early in the day we were joined by a young German girl named Layla.  She had been told it wasn't a good idea to travel through today alone and asked if she could join us.  We were happy to add another to our group of Camigos and so today our merry band of pilgrims became 5.

We climbed and then climbed some more.  Today was a challenge and I'm glad it was at this end of our trip and not the beginning as we're much fitter now and it was still a very tough day.  We walked  for a never ending 16k without any sign of a bar or barely a village.   The scenery was beautiful.  We're in the mountains now after having turned away from the coast a couple of days ago, heading inland now on our final push to Santiago roughly 140k to the Cathedral.  We were up in the clouds and they got thicker and harder to see through the higher we got.  At one stage we sat by the side of the the road and shared our food.  It was a fantastic picnic before we climbed on and on some more until we reached our pension which is very comfortable tonight.  The Camino  provides!.

7th June

7th June
Vilela - Lourenza 21k

Well last night was hilarious.  We thought we were at Fawlty Towers.  It turns out our Albergue was also run by the bar/restaurant.  This was almost the only building in town and no where else to go so we were stuck there.  The bar owner finally processed the 16 of us who were getting cold and hungry into the albergue that could have done with a good clean.  Then we waited until 8pm to order dinner.  That's how it is in Spain and this part of the Camino is not so 'pilgrim' friendly so that's when dinner so we have to like it or lump it.

We went through to the dining room which was quite pleasant in comparison to the rest of the place.  Our waiter ran around in and out if a flapping door dumping plates in front of us taking orders and rushing back to the kitchen yelling frantic orders.  It was very funny.   Our food once delivered in a flurry of activity was actually quite nice.  We then hurried back to the Albergue that was behind the bar to go to sleep. 

We woke and put our things away before starting out on a nice cool day.  We're in the mountains now so we did quite a few climbs.  There were no bars to stop  at along the way so we had breakfast in a little grotty park and a bit later some snacks by a graveyard.  After about 14k we found a bar and had the best coffee we've had in ages.  It was our first for the day and it was lunch time so of course it was good.  We had a nice bacon baguette (bocadillo) before heading off for the last push to where we are tonight.  It's clean, we've showered and I've fumigated everything so things are looking up.  I should say that our walk today was lovely even with all the climbing and lack of bars. We had some lovely views when we weren't in the forest, a eucalyptus forest actually, but that's another story. Jon joined us again today which was lovely and our German friend Biata has just arrived.  We'll find the others later and we'll see what happens tonight. 

6th June

6th June,
Tapiia to Vilela.  20k

We had a lovely dinner last night even though we had to wait until 8.30pm.  This is how it is in Spain.  We have been lucky mostly and been able to get dinner at 7.30 but not the last few nights.  Anyway while we waited we were gradually joined by more of our Camigos until there were 10 of us.  So we didn't notice our stomachs grumbling and eventually enjoyed a very nice dinner before heading home to our donativo albergue where we had a fairly good night's sleep.

We woke to a wet and windy day so popped on our rain gear and headed out.  Our new friend Jon joined us today and it was lovely to have his company on our walk.  We had to backtrack a bit and take a main road due to some interesting way marking but it was all ok in the end.  The toughest part for me was walking over a very long 500m and very high bridge in very strong wind.  I thought that would never end.

We have arrived in a little town and we're in another albergue with 20 beds which is starting to fill up with Italians.  Dinner is at 8pm so we're feeling lucky.