Contrary to the weather forecast, when I left the albergue this morning there was no hint of wind, although it was cold – 6 degrees centigrade I am told. I was well wrapped up and set off along the road for the first few km’s. I stoppd for my morning drink after less than 4 km at the charming donativo cafe ‘Sendero del Peregrino’ in A Souteleira (look them up on facebook).

I have been taking photos of the camino markers that have been carved into local chunks of granite by a ‘famous’ artist. Unfortunately I do not know the artist’s name, but some of the markers are very attractive.

You may have noticed a distinct lack of stork photos over the last week or so. I haven’t seen one now for several days. But as one photo opportunity disappears, so another raises its profile and I was delighted today to see my first horreo – a construction for storing corn, mostly very ancient although occasionally more modern examples can be seen. They often have a religious symbol on the roof and are raised off the ground by granite ‘mushroom’ shapes, which stop rodents from climbing up and eating the spoils I also discovered a different way of storing corn today – most attractive.

There were several stretches of the walk that meandered through woodland – I am seeing more pine trees now and the smell is lovely.

I took another break at the village of Alberguería where there is an amazing cafe where there are hundreds, probably thousands, of scallop shells upon which pilgrims have written their details and now adorn every surface and hanging space. Quite a sight.

I took the opportunity of this stop over to strip off some of my layers as I had now warmed up. But I hadn’t taken into account that I was about to hike up an enormous hill and with the increasing height came an increasing wind that became increasingly cold. All layers were reapplied a bit swiftly.

There was more beautiful moorland and woodland, and although the sky became increasingly threatening, I only felt a couple of light spots of rain and it came to nothing.

After a long trek on an arrow-straight farm track we re-entered woodland for the last few km’s – a lovely way to end the walk, which was more or less the same length as yeaterday’s, but seemed a bit longer.

My little gang, now consisting of Paul, Danish Aase, German Wilfried and Swiss Peter all arrived at our destination within a few minutes of eachother and were amazed to find the 24 place albergue quite full. We all had to accept top bunks, whilst wondering where everyone had come from. Mostly it seems they walked a short stage from Alberguería. We greeted Jesus and Mary, and a few other faces we had seen previously.

My phone decided to turn itself off towards the end of the day’s walk so I don’t have my own details for you, but here are the stats from someone else who has posted to wikiloc.

Distance according to Wikiloc – 34.3 km
Accumulated elevation uphill 1,020 metres
Accumulated elevation downhill 938 metres
Total distance walked 1,180.6 km, average 27.4 km per day