Deep sleep until 5 am ... second, dreaming sleep until past 8 ... ready for breakfast after skipping lunch and dinner ... brain and body reset and ready to go ... blue arrows elusive at first, so head south, along the road to Padron ... pleasant off road track appears ... blue arrows for Fatima, yellow for Santiago ... winding along, adding a few kilometres to the hard shoulder option ... no rush ... Padron easy enough today at less than 25 km ... passing incoming Camino Portugues pilgrims ... almost there!
A brief and pleasant interlude with John, from Scotland via Cornwall amongst other places ...public school "education" mentioned significantly, though there is no time to continue, standing on the side of the road, he going to Santiago and Fisterra ... the only pic on a camera shy day ... he tells of an alternative route over the mountains from Padron ... and his discovery of pilgrimming as an antidote to depression ... back at base, when it returns, he walks again ...
Padron arrives rather soon on a warm sunny day ... after lunch it still seems early at 2.30 ... and since lunch includes veggie soup, with an assurance it is meat free, an unexpected meaty appearance and texture arrives with the main course chips ... Spanish improving in time for the switch to Portuguese, but far from passable ... it is eaten anyway, possibly once a chicken, which clinches the onward walk, not as penance, the mind deals with that, but to burn off the heavy energy. .. of course, once the challenge is down the target soon becomes Caldas, to make a 40 km day ... the afternoon on the hard shoulder ... gruelling but doable ... indeed Caldas was the last albergue before Santiago on the walk up from Porto ... albeit with an early, pre-dawn start ...
The albergue is welcome to a very tired pilgrim ... warmish shower with trigger happy auto off button notwithstanding. .. plenty of space ... a lower bed with top free for clothes ... arriving at 6.45 means residents are out dining and further reports seem unlikely ...
Tomorrow is a short 20 to Pontevedra, then let's see from there ... anyway Portugal is just two or three days away ....
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