Overnight - Albergue O Apalpador
I'd arranged to walk with Kim, my long-time Belgian Camino buddy, today. She had taken a couple of days off after Molinaseca but had got back on track and was closing in at about 30 kilometres a day. She arrived in Palas Del Rei just after 9:00am and we set off soon afterwards.
I had thought we had seen the last of her after her break, so it was great catching up again and sharing stories of people and places as we wandered along.
The walk through the outskirts of Melide was fairly depressing but closer to the town centre, we spotted the evidently quite famous Garnacha pulpo restaurant that a nice Italian/Venezuelan couple had told us about out on the track a couple of hours before. We stopped there for lunch and the freshness and taste of the pulpo this time was incredible. As we were leaving, and the crowds queuing for a seat were growing larger, the reason for the freshness became very clear. The pulpo-chef was standing in the window taking one octopus at a time out of a tub of boiling water and snipping the relevant parts straight onto the plates.
We had no real thoughts about where to head tonight. Early in this walk, it's all about charging ahead and getting to places with a real sense of purpose. Now, it's almost like I'm figuring out ways of avoiding this thing from ending.
After assessing our health and the heat, we decided that Melide was going to be the end of today, and we found an albergue nearby. But not before getting my first albergue rejection of the Camino. The place looked quite good, but too many others had obviously thought so too, and it was 'completo'.
We spent the evening chatting away for hours at an outdoor bar with plenty of wonderful tapas and an orchestra rehearsing in the town square just up the way.
Weather - Another sunny day that had reached the early thirties by the time we stopped in Melide.
Health - I got a $&@#%£ blister. I don't know how it happened. By now, I thought my feet had become blister-proof. But it's there and it's annoying. I'll see how it looks in the morning and then work out what to do with it, I suppose. The various bites I mentioned last time seem to be disappearing and the urge to itch incessantly is subsiding. Hopefully that's the last we'll see - and feel - of them.
Food - Pot of tea + tortilla at Palas Del Rei cafe; Pot of tea + slice Santiago cake; Melide Pulpo cafe (pulpo, boiled potatoes, cream/custard desert); Various mixed tapas at Melide bar + Pots of tea x3
Expenses – Accommodation - 10.00; Food/Drink - 30.00 Total - 40.00
Walking time - 5 hours, 10 minutes (start 9:30am, arrive at accommodation 2:40pm)
Brierley distance - 14.5km (total 726.5km)
Daily Steps - 24,229
Total Camino steps - 1,161,145
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