Walked today: 4.8 mi. Camino2022: 264 mi
The taxi arrived promptly at 7:00 and took us to Portomarin where we stopped for breakfast, then began our walk for the day.
Surprisingly, the pilgrim traffic was not as overwhelming as expected.
For sure, there were a lot of pilgrims walking out of Portomarin, as usual, but after the huge numbers we observed yesterday going through Morgade, we figured a similar level of pilgrims would be seen today, especially the closer we got to Santiago. But based on prior Caminos, pilgrim traffic today was normal… busy for eateries and restrooms from 10 to 12:30-1:00, then almost nothing.
Walking into Gonzar we began chatting with Martha. She began by greeting us with “good morning” with only a hint of a Spanish accent. Jim asked where she was from and she said, “Spain”. She asked where we were from and we said United States, then South Carolina. Surprised and excited she said she lived in SC for a year. Jim asked where and she said Spartanburg! We said, well hello neighbor, we live in Greenville. And then she was really surprised, as were we.
It turns out, Martha, who currently lives in Madrid, did a one year study at Wofford, which led to further conversations about Meredith, Drew, future plans, etc. Before we knew it, we were at the door of our Hostal and so we said our goodbyes and continued with our respective Caminos.
It was 10:00, 72F and our room was not going to be ready until 1:30 so we found a nice shady spot on the outside terrace behind the restaurant, away from the pilgrim comings and goings, and had various drinks stretched out until lunch, then had lunch and eventually got into our room at 1:20.
We did chores and Jim took a dip in the pool to get relief from the rising temperature which is forecasted to get to 98F.
Update: the 98F forecast was way off. We’re in the restaurant where the AC is much cooler than our non-AC room. It’s 109F outside!!! A record for this area.
It’s 5:30 and a couple of pilgrims just checked in to the albergue section of the Hosteria having been walking in the inferno all afternoon. They seemed to be fine. The guy asked me if the wine was cold!
We had a light dinner seated at the coolest table available and by the end of the meal were glad to get back to a little warmth in our room. The outside temperature was down to 94F by 8:00 and should be down to the low 80’s by 9:00. (sunset at 9:20).
The forecast for tomorrow morning and the next few days shows a significant cooling trend, so weather should not be an issue for walking from here on to Santiago.
Jimandi 