Just add water

Well yet again this website couldn´t find the actual town I was in. Nor the ones either side of it! So Triacastela is actually 9km AFTER Fonfria where I stayed on Sunday night.

When walking such a long distance as the Camino is, it´s important to pack only the things you really need and not too many added luxuries. Of course there are also the added few things you pack that you know you won´t need but if you don´t pack them and it turns out you DO need them then you look an stooge. (ie. Things like First Aid Kit, Raincoat in Spain in Summer) As I had got this close without a lot of these items I had pondered sending them to Santiago for me to pickup when I finish. I mean when am I going to use a raincoat in Spain in Summer when its still 35 degrees at 7pm?

ANY accommodation indoors was sounding good to us by that stage!

So I got up and left Villafranca and after about and hour and a half it started to rain. Well spit really. For the first time on the entire Camino it had started to rain. It was marvelous! I can walk in the rain. It was just like back home. It wasn´t really getting that bad and I was walking pretty fast so the heat my body was putting out was drying my top pretty well. I kept going and eventually stopped for lunch in a cafe after 15kms walking. The rain hadn´t let up by the time I´d finished lunch so I put the raincoat on. How happy was I that I didn´t decide to send it ahead the day before!

I pulled into a shop quickly to get a plastic bag to wrap the camera in and when I came out the two American girls Jess and Kath were walking by. They were heading for O Ceberio which is the first town in Galicia. I decided to walk with them but would be continuing on after then.

We got to O Ceberio which was situated at about 1300m and the views were amazing! Unfortunately, as it had been raining, a lot of people had called it a day and booked into the refugio there so there was no room! We sat and had a coffee and they decided to join me to the next village. We arrived there and the met their friend Gregg who´s an American Catholic Seminarian. We had a chat and he informed us of the bad news that the girls couldn´t stay there either as it was full as well. He also warned us that just after he booked in, 14 scouts had been turned away!

There was still a fair bit of light in the sky and the sun hadn´t quite gone doen despite it being just before 8pm. We continued on and after a bit of walking finally arrive at a place at 9:30pm. I walked in the door and saw the woman behind the counter bite her lip at the sight of us. This wasn´t good. And the next town was 30mins walk away and places lock doors at 10pm!

They were able to offer us the floor to sleep on and gave us 50% off the rate as a result. Any accommodation indoors was sounding good to us by that stage.

We were taken to the lounge room which had windows all along it looking into the mountains. Nice view, I thought, but it´ll be cold with all those windows. Then I looked again and saw that they were double glazed! Perfect. Half price, rooms with a view AND the bar was still open and cooked us food! Good things come to those who wait! (And there was no sign of the 14 scouts either!)