Walked today: 8.6 mi. Camino’26: 272 mi.
The forecast for today was a high of 100F! The alarm got us going at 5:30 a.m. and we were on our way at 6:00 with the temperature at 61F in the dark.
We finally stopped after nearly 2 hours and over 3.5 miles at a place in Casanova (pop.8) that in all 7 previous Caminos we’d always walked past, mainly because something sooner had been open. We had our usual breakfast and a nice rest, before continuing.
We stopped at the popular and very strategically located Casa de los Somoza restaurant in O Coto to rest and possibly conclude our walk for the day, after 5.5 miles.
It was 9:30 and our check in time in Melide was 1:00 p.m.
Today we started early to avoid walking in the forecasted severely high 100F temperature.
It was 61F at 6:00 a.m. when we started. When we arrived at O Coto, it was still 67F. We still felt like walking more, so we finished our refreshment and began walking toward Melide, some 4 miles away.
As we walked we became increasingly aware of the rising temperature. Fortunately, much of the walk had large amounts of shade trees that created relief from the hammering rays of the sun.
We still had a mile and a half to go when we reached the medieval bridge into Furelos. The rest of the walk would be without shade all the way into Melide and our destination, Pención Orois.
To our left was an open bar/restaurant. It was time to stop.
We walked inside, ordered cold drinks and asked the bartender to call us a taxi.
The temperature when we began walking from O Coto was 67F. Less than 80 minutes later the temperature had reached 84F. Later today, the temperature in Melide reached 105F!!
The taxi driver dropped us at Pención Orois at 11:30. We spent the next hour in the adjacent (air conditioned) bar until getting access to our room at 12:30… 30 minutes early.
The rest of the day was routine and relaxing. But we are also mindful that we dodged a bullet today with the potentially dangerous effect of the sun. This is especially true for pilgrims walking the Camino Frances, during the warm months.
And equally important, we validated our approach of using weather app hourly forecasts, not only to decide when to carry rain gear, but to be aware of and avoid excessive exposure to the heat of the sun.
Jimandi 