Day Thirteen

The hottest day of our whole trip. That's what the weather report said, with temps in the high 90s. We started early to beat the heat...leaving the albergue in Ferreira while it was still quite dark.

But the kilometers flew by, and the day went from cool and dark to cool and foggy. The heat wave never arrived. And even though we stopped a couple of times in search of coffee and OJ, we still made it 20+km to Melide well before noon--and before our hotel room was ready.

What to do? We looked at the next day's route--at 33km the longest of the whole Camino--and immediately decided to keep going.

We dropped our packs in the hotel and continued on for another 6 km. That not only gave us 27 for the day, but also left us only 27 for tomorrow. Nice work

We thought we'd ask the albergue in Boente, where we finally stopped, to call us a taxi. But the first car we saw on the road was a taxi heading to Melide. Problem solved, and we were back in town in time for a shower and the famous octopus lunch at Casa Ezequiel. Fellow peregrinos Sebastian and his mother joined us, as did Silas from Denmark. Sebastian even picked up the tab for the wine. What a treat!

Estelle treated us to a room in the hotel Lux, complete with cava and bonbons as a surprise for my birthday. Sweet in every sense.

And then a nap, and a trip to the fruit store for supplies for tomorrow. We have a taxi reserved to take us the 6 km back to Boente, where we'll hit the Camino for the penultimate time.

And did I mention it's my birthday?