Kiwi Roaming

The walk from Padrón to Santiago de Compostela is 25.6km (or 24 according to our spreadsheet) so we had a discussion in the morning about whether we make today a single section walk or split it into two. Steve and I then headed into the old town for breakfast and had an interesting experience in a cafeteria where there was no menu and no English spoken but we ended up with yummy omelette and ham (prosciutto) on toast followed by a churro – the locals would walk in and espresso and a bowl of churros would land in front of them about a minute later, fascinating to watch.

Today was mostly on back roads, occasionally alongside the main road and for a couple of sections through forest. The wind was more a breeze now and it was cooler when we started out but quickly heated up to around 23/24C. Imogen caught us right on the 5km mark just after we had given a bagpiper busker some coin in exchange for a stamp. We know there will be other kiwi’s on the same Camino as us but didn’t meet any at all as we walked, that said I swore one man said Kia Ora as he biked past us this morning.

Imogen strode off and waited for us as we came into a wee town by the water tap, water bottles filled and she had scoped out a Mexican restaurant about 700m up the road who offer vegan options. Lunch was fascinating, our fabulous host struggled with the notion that Imogen ate no dairy or meat “what do you eat????” but offered to make her what turned out to be an amazing plate of vegano food. She also asserted that it was too hot to sit outside (where we had left Steve while we went in to order) and basically moved us, along with a couple of American women, into a dining room not visible from the outside. Yummy lunch break over and we were on the road again.

By now we had decided that we’d make a call on stopping or continuing at a suburb about 8km outside of Santiago called O Milladoiro. A curious thing I haven’t mentioned is every little town we walk through has an old fashioned laundry that is no longer in use for that purpose but we think it’s fantastic that these stone buildings were built everywhere. Many were fed by natural springs and one night on the walk we saw pilgrims soaking their feet in one town. Others were now where folks came to fill their large water containers, others were full of weeds and left in disrepair.

At O Milladoiro we sat down in a bar at the top of a steep hill right beside a busy road. Imogen and I had a sparkling “real” lemon drink and Steve a beer, plus a donut was shared too. Onto the discussion about whether to continue or not. It was nearing 5pm and we had walked 18km so a good day out really, it has also been the most continuous uphill day and in the heat so we were all quite tired. I actually broke my watch records for most minutes exercised and most calories burned today – to give you an idea of just how tough it had been.

I’d been reading people talking about arriving at the cathedral feeling tired and broken and not enjoying the experience so we made a group decision to call it a day, asked the bar tender to call us a cab and headed into Santiago to our apartment – plan was we will return to the same spot in the morning and walk!

The apartment is on a busy road in a 4 storied building but well equipped and comfortable enough. Imogen was done for the day so after our showers Steve and I walked to one of the many supermarkets nearby – this one we found quite huge and overwhelming to be honest! and bought supplies for dinner including vegan chocolate milk, baked goods and other treats for Imogen. The treat for us was roast chicken and salad – simple food after eating rich Spanish food for a few days. I also remembered which country we were in – duh! and bought a €3.20 bottle of Cava which was delicious, muy bueno! I could have been drinking Cava all week but to be fair other than the few occasions we have mentioned drinking in the blog we’ve been alcohol free, too tired to bother really.

Part 2 tomorrow.

Steps 34,161 or 21.6km