Head in the sand worked for a while, and we set off in weak sunshine, which lasted for a few kilometres.

And then, guess what? It rained, and rained. With various amounts of force, ranging from hard to very hard indeed!

That was our day really. Rain.

We stopped at our first opportunity, after 13 km. By now my trousers were clinging to my legs, my boots were soaked and so were my feet.

We had some breakfast and I changed trousers and socks but still had to put wet boots back on. We remained in the cafe in the dry for perhaps an hour whilst other pilgrims came and went – although there are not many true pilgrims on this leg of the camino. There are two large groups of people walking with day packs and just a handful of people walking with full backpacks.

After a further 7 km we had to decide which route to take. Most pilgrims who continue from Santiago walk directly to Finisterre and some continue to Muxia. We were told by our ecological host however many days ago, that it is better to visit Muxia first so that we can end our adventure in Finisterre – the end of the world. We subsequently discovered that this same guy had advised our friend Peter to visit Finisterre first and then go on to Muxia, which we all thought was quite funny.

Anyway, at the crucial point we decided to take the route to Muxia, by which time my dry trousers and socks were as wet as the wet ones.

Most of the walk today was on the road, but maybe thirty percent was on track, but of course it was very wet track, in fact most of the track had turned into a shallow stream, but luckily not too much mud today. One has to look for positive features during the day, and no mud is about the only one I can find!

The land here abouts looks very fertile, the earth is a rich black colour and very fine and is tended to perfection.

There are still forests of eucalyptus and pine, interspersed with gorse and broom and the hillsides at the highest points are coloured a deep yellow

We arrived at our destination – Dumbría – and immediately found a large and brand new albergue on the outskirts of the small town. Unfortunately, it was closed, with no sign of life. We continued into town and found a bar with a pensión attached and walked no further. The bar owner is a wonderful woman who runs the bar, restaurant, kitchen, attached shop and pensión single handed which includes stoking a roaring fire to keep us all warm. We have placed our boots around the flames to dry them off and Ella has managed to melt hers. We didn’t think the other customers would appreciate us putting our socks around the flames to dry, so they are hanging up in the bedroom without much chance of drying out by morning.

The forecast isn’t looking any better for the morning and we are running out of socks to change into!