Advertisement
Published: June 21st 2009
Edit Blog Post
Day 35
Saturday 2nd May We were up and out of the albergue by 8am, and incredibly were the first pilgrims to leave - that is a first for us! We really wanted to get a good start so that we would get into the next town at a decent hour after yesterday’s long day.
The climb out of town nice, although a little steep in parts, was really beautiful, taking us back up to 1100m and along a ridge with the ever present wind mills which have dominated the horizon in recent days. It was then back down again to cross a dam before the climb back up again. It is hard to explain but I felt such a feeling of overwhelming sense of smallness standing on the dam wall, surrounded by these mountains on both side and then looking down a massive concrete wall to the water hundreds of feet below.
It looked like the dam had once been used to generate electricity but now the buildings stood empty and eerie, especially the houses which were starting to fall down.
From the dam
More views
- Day 35 - it was a 6km climb back up into the town of Grandas de Salime and our bed for the night. The albergue was a pretty simple set-up, with triple bunks filling the room and tepid water to wash our bodies, but it was free! Huw and Michael, who had overtaken us earlier in the day, had left a note for us saying that they had walked on since it was still pretty early in the day. It was a pity as we hoped to play some more cards with them but such is the life of pilgrims, constantly moving at different paces. As for us, we were done for the day, and so by 3.30pm we were showered and sitting at the local bar with a cool drink. From there, it was on to a local park where we relaxed in the sun, reading, playing hackie sack and being attacked by the cutest puppies.
We saw the most wildlife so far today, seeing a friendly squirrel that obviously plays up to the pilgrims, and a snake that scared Dav half to death as he almost stood on it. It was nice to see as I was starting
to think that all the wildlife Spain possessed was snails, slugs (millions and millions of slugs) and birds.
After our siesta in the sun, Dav and I headed to a bar for a menu-del-dia for dinner, while Ben and Lauren went to another bar so Ben could watch his beloved Barcelona play. Without Lauren, our Spanish translator, Dav and I chose randomly from the menu... We didn’t do very well on our first course selection, getting a spinachy soup and a seafood soup, both of which were not exactly appetising to us. Luckily Lauren turned up as we were ploughing our way through the soups as they weren’t serving any food at the other bar and she was starving. Even better, she liked the seafood soup and so she ate that and we shared her first course of mountain stew (a mix of beans, ham and chirizo). We did a better job on the second course getting a lovely roast beef and a pimiento (capsicum) stuffed with mince, and then a delicious dessert rounded off the meal, and all for only 10E! I love Spain!
Day 36
Sunday 3rd May
Not the best night’s sleep as the town’s bell tower was above the albergue and so I was awoken every hour... on the hour...
The plan for the day was to have a semi-rest-day, walking only about 5km to the next town of Castro and then stay there the night. As per our guide, Castro didn’t have any shops so we planned on waiting in Grandas de Salime until the supermarkets opened at 10.30am (as per their sign) and then head off. However, the supermarket didn’t open at 10.30....or 11.... or at all on Sundays... So, given no other choice, we decided to have a full rest day and head off the next day.
Lunch was another menu-del-dia where we absolutely stuffed ourselves so that we wouldn’t need to buy any dinner. From the bar we headed off to the park again where we once again passed the afternoon lazing in the sun.
Our plan for the next day was to head off as early as we could. Unfortunately the supermarket didn’t open until 9.30am (if at all... never trust signs again), and so before bed
The dam
- Day 35 - we raided the vending machine, buying up as many snacks as we could for the day ahead to last us until we reached a civilised town again. Not the most nutritious way to go but desperation leads to funny measures. Back in the albergue we were treated to the world’s longest fart by a random pilgrim (the Camino gets a bit personal sometimes), then bed.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.594s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 47; dbt: 0.102s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb