15.3 Miles
Dale started out in a cool foggy morning, which luckily, never turned into rain. One of the first things he noticed was the new signage with formal distance to Santiago, displayed to the meter!
He met up with a new friend, Sean, and they walked at a good pace together for the 8k to the first town where he had breakfast. It became very apparent that there are now many more pilgrims on the Camino. So breakfast was a quick chocolate croissant and orange juice.
The Knight
Continuing on, they passed old house and paused to take picture. As soon as he had, another pilgrim tapped him on the shoulder and asked if Dale was catholic. Dale said that he was and the guy pointed back to a small church where a line had formed. Stepping inside, he saw a man in full Knights Templar dress who apparently is a descendant of a knight. He was stamping credencials with the Knights Templar stamp, so Dale queued up as well. He couldn’t take a picture, as the “knight” had a sign requesting no photos.
Gradually, the sky began to clear, opening up more beautiful views. He was walking through the small village of Ligande when the sound of mooing warned him that cows were near. Turning around he saw about 25 cows being herded down the street into a pen for milking. Stepping aside to allow them passage, he decided to snap a few pics.
Keep Calm
About 5 km out from Palas de Rei, he saw these fun signs indicating an Albergue which had rooms. It’s the Camino version of keeping calm!
Pilgrims who want to take to heart ” the Camino provides” motto like to just walk daily, stop when they’re tired, and find a bed at an albergue. Until recently, this hasn’t seemed to be a problem. However, this year reported a record number of people walking the camino, so in many smaller towns albergues, hostels, and anywhere else you could sleep were “completo.” As a result booking ahead became a necessity if you didn’t want to walk another several kilometers to find a bed.
Palas de Rei
When he caught up with me, I had checked us in and wandered a bit, taking pictures of the church (which was near to our hostel), and scoping out a place for lunch. We enjoyed wonderful salads, then took our Siesta before heading out later to wander a bit more and find dinner.
The cold being much better, I’m walking tomorrow!