We both slept well last night although the bed wasn't the most comfortable we'd every slept in. Up and packed reasonably early and along to the restaurant for our breakfast. This consisted of a simple menu of toast, jam and coffee. Then we set off, or at least tried to. Our first problem of the day was crossing the main road to continue the Camino trail up the road opposite. The crossing point was at the cross-roads of the main road and and a busy minor road. The main road has nearly endless, fast, traffic into which drivers from the minor road were trying to join by suddenly slipping out of the side road into any sort
of gap in the main traffic. We, the poor pilgrims, were expected to somehow cross amongst all this chaos. There were no crossings or traffic lights. Just take a deep breath and go for it.
We did manage a safe crossing eventually, only to read in one of the guides later that they considered that this is the most dangerous crossing on the Camino. Nice!
Once onto a more sensible track we started up the hill we had partly completed yesterday. It was a steep drag for some distance more before partly levelling out. At this point we came across a Camino art "installation" consisting of a wooden frame covered in a large number of cockleshells.
Apparently if you had a marker with you it was suggested that you would write your name, make a comment or whatever else you wanted. We didn't have any form of suitable marker so made do with just looking.
Eventually, after several kilometres of climbing through nicely wooded country we reached the top of the hill started yesterday, only to then descend of course.
The route passed through very nice countryside but very few villages, but the increased number of pilgrims from previous days was noticeable. At times it felt as if we were back on the Camino conveyor belt again, delivering a steady stream of pilgrims towards Santiago.
Eventually after another hill we arrived at Arcade, a small town set on a mouth of a small river flowing into the sea. It was a lovely little town with a steep descent into it and a rather steeper ascent out again.
Where a narrow and old bridge crossed the river it formed an ideal place for a break. At a small cafe I went in to order some orange drinks and was also given two free portions of empanada. They were very nice and very welcome. As we sat outside drinking our orange juice and eating empanada we were joined by our friends from France, Colette and Jan.
We have managed to see them once or twice a day for many days now, and it is always a pleasure. Before we had finished our break they moved on, but we were then entertained by a crocodile of about twenty very young children, escorted by several adults setting out to cross the very narrow old bridge. Quite a complicated process as the bridge was fairly busy with traffic. One of the adults stopped the traffic at our end, to let the children start the crossing, with ( I think) another one at the other end of the bridge stopping traffic at that end.
It was quite fascinating to watch.
After our break, and entertainment, we started off again. This section was almost a replay of earlier in that we had yet another large hill to climb and descent before a fairly level stretch into Pontevedra, our destination for tonight.
This was a hot but otherwise uneventful walk but, as I mentioned earlier, enlivened by the additional numbers of pilgrims on the trail. Earlier in the day we passed the 80ks marker and later the 70kms marker, so we are now getting very close to Santiago.
Tonight we are staying in quite a nice hotel just outside the centre of Pontevedra. We managed to find a special deal, in a three star hotel for only a few euros more than we paid last night in a very mediocre place.
We arrived earlier than usual and had time this afternoon to find a laundry nearby and managed to get all the clothes we weren't wearing thoroughly washed and dried. We still had time to have a look around the town itself.
We'll see more in the morning as we walk out through the old part of the city, on our way to Caldas de Reis.
