Would you believe it was another sunny, warm day! This is 33 days without rain for Ted, and everyone of those days was sunny. This must be some kind of record as this is definitely not normal.
Today we left O Coto at just after 8 am - somewhat late. I had a great sleep for about 10 hours - I never sleep for 10 hours. Well maybe tonight. We had our longest day - covering 35kms. Our original destination for the day was Arzua. We got there at 2:30. We both felt we could do more, but the next place we felt sure that there was accommodation was Brea, 15 kms further down the road. In our experience, that is an unusually long distance with no albergue. Another 15 on top of the 22 kms we had already walked seemed too much. However, we also had experienced that there were albergues, casa ruals, and pensions that were not in our book. Surely there were some in this 15 km stretch even though the books showed none. We checked with other pelegrinos around us, and there books also showed no places to stay. We then walked to the alberge in Arzua that some friends were planning to stay at. Fortunately the young lady behind the desk spoke sufficient English, and we asked her if she knew of a place to stay in this 15 km zone. She did and said it was in Salceda, about 10 kms down the trail. At our request, she phoned and made arrangements for us. Because the pension was not going to be staffed when we would arrive, she gave us their phone numbers. This seemed to work out well. Only another 10 kms, we have a reservation, we have contact phone numbers. This was OK as a friend taught us how to call locally using our Canadian cell phones.
Well, the body has limits. After the next 5 kms, my knee and the blister on my heel both started to pain. We arrived in Salceda and I was now in pain and tired. So where in Salceda is this place? I ask a local in his backyard for assistance which he willingly provides in Spanish only. He points out where it is, and off we go. When we get there, we can't find the place. We drop into a local restaurant who's owner indicates that's not a good place to stay. Well, what to do. Ted arranges for a taxi, due to my situation, to the next Town, Brea. But it's not a taxi with a taxi license that picks us up, it's a guy in a van that only speaks Spanish. We hop in and he delivers us to a nice pension about 2 kms down the road. But this guy isn't a taxi driver, he's the owner of the pension! Wow. He charged us 38 Euros for the room with 2 beds, and nothing for the ride. We all got something out of this deal, not quite what Ted and I were expecting - but it all worked out well.
So now we are within a long day's walk to Santiago. If we do this tomorrow, we'll be in a day early - not bad. Cathy and Sallie reach Santiago by train tonight. Will we be able to push ourselves and meet the tomorrow some time. Stay tuned ...
Today we left O Coto at just after 8 am - somewhat late. I had a great sleep for about 10 hours - I never sleep for 10 hours. Well maybe tonight. We had our longest day - covering 35kms. Our original destination for the day was Arzua. We got there at 2:30. We both felt we could do more, but the next place we felt sure that there was accommodation was Brea, 15 kms further down the road. In our experience, that is an unusually long distance with no albergue. Another 15 on top of the 22 kms we had already walked seemed too much. However, we also had experienced that there were albergues, casa ruals, and pensions that were not in our book. Surely there were some in this 15 km stretch even though the books showed none. We checked with other pelegrinos around us, and there books also showed no places to stay. We then walked to the alberge in Arzua that some friends were planning to stay at. Fortunately the young lady behind the desk spoke sufficient English, and we asked her if she knew of a place to stay in this 15 km zone. She did and said it was in Salceda, about 10 kms down the trail. At our request, she phoned and made arrangements for us. Because the pension was not going to be staffed when we would arrive, she gave us their phone numbers. This seemed to work out well. Only another 10 kms, we have a reservation, we have contact phone numbers. This was OK as a friend taught us how to call locally using our Canadian cell phones.
Well, the body has limits. After the next 5 kms, my knee and the blister on my heel both started to pain. We arrived in Salceda and I was now in pain and tired. So where in Salceda is this place? I ask a local in his backyard for assistance which he willingly provides in Spanish only. He points out where it is, and off we go. When we get there, we can't find the place. We drop into a local restaurant who's owner indicates that's not a good place to stay. Well, what to do. Ted arranges for a taxi, due to my situation, to the next Town, Brea. But it's not a taxi with a taxi license that picks us up, it's a guy in a van that only speaks Spanish. We hop in and he delivers us to a nice pension about 2 kms down the road. But this guy isn't a taxi driver, he's the owner of the pension! Wow. He charged us 38 Euros for the room with 2 beds, and nothing for the ride. We all got something out of this deal, not quite what Ted and I were expecting - but it all worked out well.
So now we are within a long day's walk to Santiago. If we do this tomorrow, we'll be in a day early - not bad. Cathy and Sallie reach Santiago by train tonight. Will we be able to push ourselves and meet the tomorrow some time. Stay tuned ...
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