The Most Beautiful, Amazing Day

Melide to Arzùa – 15kms

It was a short day today, so I’d decided to treat us with a sleep-in of 7:30am and have breakfast before we left. We’d looked at the weather forecast the previous night and it had said showers in the morning, less so in the afternoon, so the mentality was to delay our start for as long as possible.

I’m not sure we needed to bother. When we opened the front door, we were greeted with pea soup! The fog was so thick, you couldn’t even see across the road. I didn’t care. It wasn’t raining and that’s all that mattered.

We found a cozy cafe that seemed to be where every single Spanish person had congregated, ordered croissants, cafe con leche for me, juice for Riley and enjoyed a quick breakfast.

The fog still enveloped us, giving everything a hushed feeling.

I was loving the surroundings, but Riley was in a bad head space, which I tried to lift him out of briefly before leaving him to it. He needs to work this out for himself, so off he went ahead until we came to a choice of paths.

We chose right and it was incredible. I’m sure it took me an hour just to walk 1km. The scenery with the fog was stunning and with the eucalypts, made me feel like I was back at home.

When I finally caught up to Riley, he said he had been wondering how many photos I could possibly take.

A lot. It was just so unbelievably beautiful.

As I was ambling along, taking in the sheer beauty of the surroundings, I came across a marker, and for some reason, I wiped it to read what it was showing.

It had changed to just under 50kms. The enormity of this moment hit me like a freight train and I burst into tears. Nearly 800kms across Spain and I had less than 50kms to go. How was this even possible?

I walked along trying to process it all when I caught up to Riley again. His first words were acknowledging the 50km mark. It clearly had an impact on him too.

He was in a much better frame of mind, so we walked comfortably along together. He pointed out a great photo opportunity of a spider web with dew on it. I got one photo, but when I was trying for a better shot, the back of my leg came in contact with a stinging nettle and I was hopping around like crazy. My sympathetic son just laughed. 😐

We continued on and I was merrily walking along, swinging my poles around until I accidentally hit myself in the front of the leg (same leg as the stinging nettle). Again, Riley laughed. (I enjoyed the karma though when he was walking slightly ahead swinging his poles and hit himself and turned around to see if I’d seen. I had. I laughed.)

About 6kms into our day, we came up to a cafe and I looked at Riley to see if he wanted to stop or not. He took one look at the menu and said we were stopping. Crepes.

After eating, I went to the toilet and whatever cleaning product they had on the floor made it terribly slippery. I had to walk very carefully to make it out without falling.

The beauty continued.

I even became obsessed with all the different types of funghi, making me think of my ladybirds at home who go on hikes and this is like porn for them!

Walking through this beautiful, misty landscape, I was filled with utter joy. My heart felt light and full at the same time.

I thought of a situation I had read about last night from someone who was on the Camino, expressing anger at another pilgrim for something they couldn’t help. At the time, I was quite taken aback by the venom being displayed and had little sympathy for them.

Today, I felt incredible sadness for them. I recognise that there are people who always seem to come across angry or negative. I truly hoped for this person to experience the light and joy I felt today. I hope the Camino helps them find some peace within themselves.

Coming into Ribadiso was stunning.

We stopped for lunch and I had a delicious chicken salad. I went to the toilet and they had clearly used the same slippery floor cleaner as the other cafe, but had upped the ante.

My boots were slipping to the point I couldn’t stand up off the toilet and had to clutch the sink to get up. I had to hold the walls to make it out the door. Riley had gone to the toilet too and came out of the male toilet walking very carefully as well!

We had just 3kms to Arzùa, but it also happened to be all uphill. I’m still slow on the hills, but move relatively easily. I spoke to a man for a bit who looked like he was struggling. Oh, how I recognised the look.

He had started at Sarria and said his feet were very sore. I gave him all the little tidbits that had helped me and when he learned I had started in St Jean, he said how amazing that was and he was very thankful for my advice. I felt very proud in that moment. I wished him Buen Camino and continued on.

Just as we were coming in, it started to rain, but we managed to arrive at Albergue Cima do Lugar, our accommodation for the night completely dry.

Typical Camino style – a day makes all the difference.