August 4, 2021

Today was a hard day, projected to be about 14 miles, but with a couple of group errors and some extra walking around in our destination town of Ribadeo, my Heart App recorded 19.1 miles by bedtime.

We walked for 8 miles through corn fields and cow pastures. We virtually saw no services or people!

We stopped to talk with a friendly couple, and they let us know that just a bit off the route was a restaurant. We were happy to hear that and made our way to what ended up being a golf resort and hotel! They had limited options for food however, as their kitchen was not open. We were thrilled to get some café con leche, Coca Cola for one of our group, fruit, toast and yogurt! And, we felt very smug when The sky opened up wide and it began to pour down rain outside!

It seemed to abate as we were leaving, yet it was just a brief break. We walked the rest of the afternoon in rain as well as on pavement or the highway way too close to cars.

We crossed a long bridge to come into the harbor town of Ribadeo. It is a lovely city and we were very, very tired, ready to be done walking.

We heard yesterday that the reservation we had made in town was canceled, and as a Plan B we had a bead on a couple of other spots to check out upon arriving. Unfortunately they were both full.

As we proceeded to check around town by phone and door-to-door basically, we found the whole town seemingly booked up! There were a lot of tourists out and about and it seemed like some event was happening with the numbers of people that we saw and the results we were getting trying to find a place to stay. New blisters appeared for some during the wet weather and many miles, and tempers and patience ran thin. After close to two hours we finally found two different places to split up and stay at.

After a brief rest we met up for some dinner and called it good for the day! Internet has been nonexistent the last two nights, and spotty even when we do have it. Anyway, the Camino is a challenge and as many like to say, “The Camino provides”.

Today’s hit parade of towns: Barrionuevo, Figueras, Pedra, San Pelayo, Valdeparas, El Franco, Brul, Barres, Campón and Castropol