October 7th (day 6)

Today has been a short day as we walked from the high land of Hospital Da
Condesa to the much lower town of Triacastela, a walk of 15 kms. Overnight
there was quite a bit of rain and the temperatures dropped. By morning the
rain stopped so we walked through another day without rain. As we started
out and as long as we remained at the higher elevations, there was a dense
cool mist supported by a steady wind. It felt very maritime. I eventually
put my rain jacket on top of my fleece jacket to keep warm.
By the time we reached lower elevations we left the mist behind and the sun
came out and raised the temperature. It has turned out to be a beautiful
fall day.
The area is still characterized by tall hills and deep valleys, but the
valleys have higher levels of agricultural activity. For at least half the
day we have passed dairy cattle in greener pastures. The downside of this
has been a day of cow patty avoidance. The cows and the peligrenos share
the same trails. The cows are milked in the villages and are taken out to
the pastures after the morning milking. Some trails are quite the mess, and
the smell of manure has been with us the whole day.
On the physical side, my feet are fine and appear to have adjusted to the
walking demands. My shins and knees had a very tough day due to the
significant downhill trek. A double dose of Advil helped quite a bit.
Thankfully we only needed to complete 15 kms today.
We are staying in a private albergue tonight. It's quite nice. I have
attached a photo of it.