The alarm goes off at 6am, we are up, packed and out by half past. I’m looking forward to walking again but I still worry for Jaz. She takes everything in her stride and after the initial shock of another early morning seems to enjoy the walk.
I grumble about finding markers to lead us out of the city, (they all want us to walk in but never want us to leave). Eventually we find the signs and make our way out of Santiago heading towards the sea.
The path leads us up and down the rolling landscape between the city and the coast, through more eucalyptus woods and for the first time in Spain, we seem to avoid several villages.
The first cafe we saw was around 9am, so we stop for a coffee. I have no idea where we are as my Cicerone book is utter trash now, it needs to be burnt at Finisterre… No other guide seems to be directionally challenged quite like Alison Raju’s ‘Way of St James’.
We continue to follow the intermittent yellow arrows and shell pillars giving us rough distances.
I’m so impressed with Jaz as she marches in front of me up the hills, the clouds have come in and it’s now drizzling, it’s also still very warm. It reminds me of the rain forests of Australia.
By 11.30am we enter Negreira. Jaz And I decide to stop as her legs ache and I’d rather not push her too much today. We sit at a cafe and have a coke before looking for an albergue.
We check into the Albergue San José, they give us a quiet corner, still bunk beds but it’s nice. We shower (not together), shop for lunch, eat lunch and siesta (together).
When we wake it’s nearly 6pm, I’m still tired but we need to get up and do a few things. We pop out and amazingly buy headphone splitters (with no Spanish I believe thats a real feat)! We have an ice lolly (popsicle for our American readers)… Before heading back to see if we can download ‘Finding Nemo’ or ‘Cars’…
Today we have walked 22km, tomorrow is 33km I believe?!!