A Ribadiso de Baixo to O Pedrouso, 23 km

We leave shortly before 07:30 and it is rather gloomy and rather cold. The sun isn’t due to rise for another half hour and there’s thick fog which makes it feel very damp on the one day that Mikey has decided to wear his shorts.

After walking out of the village, we are diverted alongside a very busy, very very fast road which is not at all pleasant, although there is a path running alongside. I guess that’s the price of getting close to our endpoint – more traffic. 

After a couple of kilometres, we are walking through the town of Arzúa which is a main stage end on the camino Frances. 

We stop for breakfast for the first time on this trip. Bacon and eggs all round!  There are some advantages to being on a busier trail I suppose. 

The television in the cafe is showing coverage of the dreadful train crash at Toledo a couple of days ago, resulting in appalling loss of life. 

It remains surprisingly cold well into the morning. I doubled up my gloves for the first time on this camino. I think Mikey is regretting his sartorial choices. 

The sun finally puts in an appearance at 09:15. But it hasn’t affected the temperature yet.

The walk away from Arzúa is much more pleasant – wide dirt tracks through various woodland. There has suddenly appeared, not to my surprise, lots of people offering stamps for our pilgrims’ passports along with items some might be tempted to buy.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it already, but for the last 100 km it’s necessary to obtain two stamps per day, as a way of proving you have walked and not jumped on a bus, and so are eligible for a compostela (certificate of completion issued by the Pilgrims’ Reception Office)

By 09:30 the sun is well and truly out and the temperature instantly warms up.

I leave Mikey to walk ahead with the guys we’ve seen regularly over the last few days. I slow my pace and suddenly find myself walking in my own little bubble – there’s no one around me for a while, which is lovely.

I have been followed all along this camino by my pet robin who shows up by my side several times a day. I’m sure he’s a close relative to one of the robins that I feed at home. Today he posed for this photograph. I wonder if he knows what joy he brings me. 

The way continues mostly on nice woodland tracks with various stints alongside roads until we reach O Pedrouzo where we have decided to stay the night. We choose Albergue Porta de Santiago of the many, many options and are the first to arrive and invited to choose our beds. The bathroom facilities are excellent, the kitchen facilities not so much. €15. 

We walk into Santiago tomorrow to complete another camino adventure. I have to admit to feeling rather tired and wouldn’t have wanted to walk any further today. Maybe I’m getting a bit old for this lark.