Being Thankful

Las Herrerias – Rest Day

I wanted to try and get Riley into the early morning wake up call routine, but also not shock his system too much, so the alarm was set for 7:30am. (Trust me, on a non-work day, that is extremely early for him!)

He went and opened the window, and was visibly shocked by how completely dark it was at 8am. It’s great seeing all these new reactions to the environment here.

That environment included rain, lots of rain. Riley brought Melbourne’s crappy weather with him. (I know, I know, by the time most people will be reading this at home, it will be sunny, but just wait a day!) Everyone is blaming him anyway.

We wandered down for breakfast and joined Linda and Randi before all walking out to see Sara and Evan off on the horses.

Sadly, the trip up on the horses was cancelled due to the wind that had picked up. Victor, the horse guy said the wind makes it very dangerous for the last half to O Cebreiro and recommended Sara and Evan walk to the next village and take a taxi from there.

We hugged them goodbye, (Riley included) and silently crossed my fingers that the weather improves enough for us to do the trip up on the horses in the morning.

Riley was clearly feeling a little cooped up with the rain because the flies in the room were driving him nuts. I fell over laughing when he started running around the room trying to swat the flies, exactly like BC had done all those days (weeks?) ago in Castrojeriz.

I laughed even harder when he was trying to put the pillow back into the pillowcase. Spanish pillows are really long and they have a sleeve rather than a case, so no end. Not realising this, Riley had to try three times to get the case on, with each attempt resulting in the pillow sliding straight through and onto the ground. It was hilarious watching his confused face!

Hunger soon took priority, so we walked up to another Albergue for lunch. I enjoyed a French omelette with salad, while Riley had their homemade burger. The staff were all laughing because Riley ate the burger in what seemed like seconds.

Our plan had been to walk back to the previous village, but the rain looked settled and we didn’t want to get caught in worse weather, so we started walking back to our place.

The one amazing blessing from the wind and rain came in the form of walnuts, fresh off the Dream tree! They were everywhere on the ground. I had a fabulous time picking them up, cracking them open with a rock and eating them. Soooo delicious!

Just before our accommodation, Riley saw a small road heading up, and with the rain easing a little, we decided to follow it up. It was incredibly beautiful.

At first Riley wanted to see where the road went, but we fortunately made the wise decision to turn around because not long after, the rain started to get heavier.

The fire warming the lounge in our accommodation when we returned was a welcome sight as water dripped off our coats. The host gave us somewhere to dry them before we ordered a cafe con leche, hot chocolate and a piece of the almond cake, a specialty of this area and just heaven on a plate.

Riley had packed ‘Spot It’, a super fun variation of Snap, so we passed the time playing round after round, which I won five games in a row. We were laughing so hard by the end.

For dinner, I had discovered a vegetarian pilgrim’s meal, so I went with this and Riley went back to the hamburger place for spaghetti bolognese. My meal was divine – delicious carrot soup served with a quinoa salad and homemade hummus, spread on homemade bread and endless vino tinto.

As the volunteers served cheesecake for dessert, they said a previous volunteer had started a tradition to have each guest say something they were thankful for today.

I said I was thankful for the day spent with Riley.

I am so thankful for everything experienced on this journey. It has been truly amazing.