On our way to the coast! The traditional Camino ends on Santiago, but a continuation out to the coast is also part of the trek. Visit St. James in Santiago, then out to the coast.
I left at 6:30 this morning. I had tentative plans to walk out at 6:15 with Melissa and Cindy but they decided to start at 7:00. I had 21 miles to cover and wanted an early start.
Rain was in the forecast and it fell before I got 2 miles from town. At one point it was coming down ver hard. I took shelter in a bus stop shelter to wait for it to lighten up a bit.
I stopped at the first restaurant at mile 5.5 and had a Kas Orange soda. Then I noticed it had stopped raining so I headed back out quickly to get some miles in before the next squall hit.
The rain stopped for about four hours, from about 10-2:00. During this time I stopped and ate a lunch of meat and cheese sandwich, chips and a couple cookies in a covered bus stop. Then I walked into Negeira. Here I walked into a grocery store and bought a couple sodas for the road.
I only saw six people today. A blond woman slipped and fell about 50 yards in front of me before I reached Negeira. Later, after Negeira we walked together for a couple hours in a driving rain storm, each with our umbrellas trying to keep us dry. Head and shoulders did stay relatively dry, but the rain was so thunderous it blew in from the sides and wetted my pants and the umbrella leaked right in the center so that rain ran down the stem and dropped onto my shoulder. The only consolation was the temperature was mild-in the high 60’s, so it wasn’t wet and cold, just wet.
We came upon a shelter during what we thought was the worst of it and slipped under it. It was more of a covered water trough or foot soaking pool. There was room to stand under it but not sit. Lucie (pronounced Lew-see-ah) was walking along the slimy edge and slipped, falling into the pool to her knees. She has a big smile and roaring laugh. Both were present as she pulled herself out of the pool.
As we started our descent into Vilaserío the rain was coming down in sheets. The road was about 3/4 of an inch deep in running water and soil was washing off the adjacent corn fields turning the water in the concrete ditches alongside the road black.
I got to the albergue and paid my €13 for a bed in a room with 12 bunks. Lucky Luke, the German with serious lack of understanding about appropriate concaxt time was in the bar having just finished lunch. We chatted for a minute, then I excused myself and walked down to the albergue to get oí of my wet clothes.
I was in room 2, bunk 10. I walked up the store and into the room with 12 bunks. The only one occupied was on the opposite corner from mine, occupied by Renauta, a gorgeous 39 year old woman from Brazil. As we talked I found out she is a consultant for web page design and works online. She is only on her home island off the coast of Brazil in the summer and travels the rest of the year. All her clients are scattered around the world, so it doesn’t matter where she is physically.
I tended to my gear, did my yoga/stretching, wrote in my blog, FaceTimed with Jeff and kids and talked with Renauta. It was a wonderful afternoon/evening.
On the path
The path is always a road
Lilliana hides from the rain next to the water trough she fell into
The route becomes a river in the driving rain
Sheets of rain
Lilliana try’s to stay dry under her Chinese made umbrella.
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