Camino Invierno Day 4 (Day 43 Overall)

So today was an interesting day. I set off early from my hostel in Sobradelo. And I’ve set off before dawn, which entailed a little bit of road walking, mainly road walking as far as O Barco. But I used my headlamp and reflectors and was perfectly safe and there wasn’t much traffic on the road and in fact it was dawn within 30 or 40 minutes of me starting.

O Barco was one of these towns that is long and drawn out along the side of the river. So, I have this habit of not going into the first open bar. I don’t know why, but I always think that it’s unfortunate that most pilgrims go into the first bar and the subsequent bars miss out on their custom. However, I walked through most of O Barco before I found another bar, so maybe there was a lesson in that!

But I found a wonderful bar where I had some café con leche and tortilla. The tortilla was so good I had two pieces. The two pieces of tortilla and a cafe con leche cost me all of €4. So, fortified by that breakfast, I was ready for the next part, following along the river to A Rua.

Unfortunately, as I left the cafe, it really started to pour with rain. It rained for most of the walk, which was interesting in a number of ways because all of my gear has been thoroughly tested over a number of Caminos, except my current footwear. I’ve never worn it in wet weather and I soon found my feet absolutely waterlogged, but I didn’t seem to suffer as a consequence.

So, the sun came out for the last hour or so of the walk, which was very pleasant. Again, A Rua is one of these towns that is strung out along the river and from the outskirts to my hostel was about two kilometres. So, I got in by about 1:00 o’clock to the delightful Hostel Niza. The hostel is run by a wonderful lady who treats everybody like her kids, and I’ve got a fantastic private room, private bathroom, and she did my washing for me all for €35 and it’s a really nice room. So, I think that’s excellent value. If you’re staying in A Rua, I can recommend hostel Niza.

It’s going to be early to bed. Tomorrow is going to be the start of, I think 3 days, of fairly strenuous walking over some hills. I want to be refreshed. Also, tomorrow is going to be a day where I have to bring my own food.

Tomorrow I’m staying at Soldon in an apartment and there’s nowhere to buy food there. Again, I’m having to carry my food. So, I spent some time shopping today and trying to work out what I could take that was lightweight and I’ve probably got too much and it’s probably too heavy, but maybe I’ll eat some on my way. Another wonderful day on the Camino Invierno.   (I had booked by phone a couple of days earlier and asked the owner to buy me some bread, eggs and oil)