A Leboreira to Ribadiso de Baixo, 29.5 km

We didn’t explore the hamlet of A Leboreira yesterday evening due to being tired, but it wouldn’t have taken long if we had. There are fewer than a dozen buildings and a lot of farming activity. 

The albergue itself is absolutely delightful and every need was met, three showers, three loos and many basins. The kitchen was fully stocked with utensils and many treats for us to drink and eat.  But there were a few flies around, and I imagine in the summer it could be an issue. There’s definitely an aroma of cow in the village.

We walk out before eight this morning. It’s not as cold as I expected.

We’re immediately on track through woodland over a million acorns. It’s most pleasant.

We intersect the Camino Frances halfway through today’s stage so we expect to see a lot more pilgrims, which I’m not entirely looking forward to. 

I meet a wonderful brown and white collie lying low on the side of the track. Not many dogs are wanting attention but nevertheless I always try chatting them up. As soon as this charmer realises I’m friendly he picks up a giant pine cone in his mouth and flings it into my path. I oblige by chucking it along the track whereupon he retrieves it, returns to his original position and flings it at me once more. The ritual is repeated several times before I feel the need to move on. What a really gorgeous chap he is. 

There’s sufficient elevation to cause me to huff and puff and glow on many occasions, but overall there is more descent than climb. 

The weather is generally overcast but not foggy for a change. I soon strip down to t-shirt. 

We pass by extensive eucalyptus plantations – all trees planted in absolute straight lines.

I reach what I hope is the highest point of today’s stage – level with the wind turbines – and it’s downhill in all directions from here hopefully for quite some time to come.

Mikey has marched ahead and is nowhere in sight, but I can see his location via an app on my phone which is reassuring. He’s had a couple of days when he’s been dawdling well behind me and on his good days he’s charging head. I’d rather have the charging ahead because I think the dawdling behind may have something to do with his ‘socialising’ the evening before.

After the peak there’s a  barren landscape  – gorse, brambles, rough grass, dead ferns – the sky is showing a little blue amongst the cloud and it’s perfect walking weather. 

The landscape changes to rolling grasslands and the route is on tarmac and it all changes from time to time. 

We continue downhill in varying degrees on various surfaces until we reach the large town of Mérida at 18 km at 12:15. We pop into the first supermarket we spy and whilst I gather a few items for sustenance, Mikey announces that he really wants to cook tonight and heads for the meat counter to purchase a huge steak for himself and a somewhat smaller one for me. When we find a bench outside to organise ourselves I realise that he’s also bought two giant potatoes for chips plus numerous other goodies to keep his stomach happy. It all weighs a ton and his backpack is ridiculously heavy. I try to persuade him to dump one of the spuds but he resists and he carries all this weight for the next 11 km. 

So we have to make sure we stay in accommodation with a fully functioning kitchen. The Albergue de Caminantes (€14) fits the bill. There are only three of us in our dorm, we are given cotton sheets and pillowcases – a real treat – and after a shower Mikey sets to in the kitchen whilst I visit the bar across the road for a glass or two of Alboriño. I sit with a very interesting woman from Canada and we chat away for an hour or so until I get the call from Mikey to say dinner is almost ready. 

Well, bless him, I’m so glad he carried those spuds all that way. The chips I didn’t think I’d want are truly delicious and the steak is cooked to perfection. Thank you Mikey, it was a real treat.