Last night saw four middle aged women sitting outsode a bar, glued to their ‘phones in a way normally only see in the minutes leading up to the release of Oasis gig tickets. We were all trying to book accommodation for the next few days. The two Carols and Maura were walking together so finding three beds in the same Albergue was harder for them than for me, but even so I have ended up with more private rooms than I anticipated. On the plus side (financially) I will arrive in Santiago earlier than I thought so I am cancelling my super fancy hotel room. I now have accommodation booked up to and including Santiago. I then need to decide what I want to do next.
The dorm I was in last night had a group of six Spanish women, a couple and me. Another night of no snoring! The group of six started waking up at 4.30am and, thought they tried to be quiet, I gave up and started to get ready at about 5.30am. They’d been up a whole hour and were still faffing about, monopolising the bathroom and being loudly quiet! I’m not sure what time we left (my Garmin charging cable decided to give up the ghost yesterday so I have it on ultimate power saving settings) but it was early. And misty! Head torches in mist mean a very limited field of vision, so there was little to do but get my head in the game and walk!
Having left so bloody early I arrived in the next village hours before anything was open for coffee. I carried on. The walk today was mainly on lovely, smooth paths. There were significant ascents and descents, but it is so much easier when you don’t have to watch where you are putting every step.
I stopped for a breakfast snack on the side of a hill overlooking the Grandes de Salime hydroelectricity dam. The trail was making its way down to cross over the dam - which meant that we would have to climb up the other side later!
Had ‘breakfast with a view’ at Vistalegre.
After a hearty breakfast, and a chat with three lower sixth Eton boys I set off back up the other side of the dam. I soon caught up with Sven (from Belgium not Sweden£ and Victor from Valencia. We chatted about learning foreign languages, this bloody hill, home towns, this hill, work and this bastard hill all the way to Grande de Salime! All of us arriving far too early to check into our accommodation, so resorting to a bar!
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