No small accomplishment considering the usual state of my ankles and feet. With braces on ankles and knees and an Aleve now and again, I’m continuing on. Some longer walks, some blissfully shorter ones now and again. The best part for me is meeting the people, hikers and locals. The hikers make it such an international experience – it’s fun to figure out who is from where and where they started hiking, where they plan to go and their motivation to hike.

This morning we took our time getting up and heading out. It was sort of a mixed bag day, with some ups, some downs, some road walks, some forested trail, some open paths, up to a few ridges and down. 

A fairly uneventful day, with a few hikers we’ve met crossing paths with us now and again. Always delightful to reach a small cafe to find others to chat with. We carried on until we reached the boundary of Asturias, then crossing into Galicia. That was the point where Mandy mentioned that the signs we follow would have us follow the shells in the opposite direction. Up till now we have been following the base of the shells and now we were to follow their top, at least that was how it was when Mandy hiked the Caminos before. Not so now, at least in this initial section as they’ve put very nice new markers in place but depending on which side of the path it’s on the shell is one way or the other. Now we just pay attention  the arrows.

About 4km away from the planned stop for today it began to pour, along with rolling thunder. We quickly donned our rain gear and proceeded on and finally after a ridiculous climb at the very end to reach the town of Fonsagrada. We are staying in a comfortable albergue along with Simon, who has proceeded alone as of today, as his friend Seppe saw a doctor about his leg injuries. The doctor recommended that he stay off the trail for at least a week. 

We were tired and hungry and decided to buy food to make a simple dinner at the albergue.