Day 8 Oct 5, The pilgrims feast

Monday - Ocober 5 - many of us awoke in the middle of the night to rain and wind - gail force, pelting against the building, wondering what our day will be like. Will we be walking in this all day, how cold will it be? We had agreed to meet at the hotel restaurant at 8 as this was to be a shorter day. This was the first time we noted that there was a breakfast buffet for only 5 euros (about $7.50) and this included coffee. It was delicious and we feasted. To our surprise the wind was warm and although the ground was wet, it was not raining. We donned on our rain gear anyway, as the forecast in Sarria and in Tricastela was for rain and the clouds looked onimous. Soon we were shedding our rain gear as it was quite warm (about 17 degrees) but quickly put them back on as the rain started again. We were soaked again as the rain came and went in gusts. By the time we reached the hotel, we had walked another 19.22 km - by tomorrow we will have walked well over 200km almost 2/3rds of the way. Many are still tending their blisters, and aching muscles. Some have found some new issues, swollen ankles, knees and for the light sleepers, getting a good night sleep is challenging. The hotel walls are not well insulated, cannot imagine what it would be like in the hostels (all those body noises too!). Today, we walked through several small farming villages, the barnyard is right next to their houses. The potent aroma from the cattle pens filled the air and made us hold our breaths as we walked by. It was a nice journey today, going up and downhill. Interestingly, the farmers keep their cattle on their land with electric fences, although I am curious to find out how strong the current is, I have not touched the fence. They also seperate their land from others, in some areas with rock fences... it is pretty amazing to think that someone piled all those flat stones on top of each other to make miles of fence. Lots of work! We are still seeing lots of apple trees, although not as many orchards as we have previously seen and I do not think we saw any vineyards (although the rain forced us onward). Chestnuts and walnuts line some of the pathway and with the blowing wind, many find their way to the ground. This makes walking treacherous - it is like walking on marbles. Speaking of treacherous, we were almost run over by a cyclist as we were going downhill. It is not a cyclist route and he did not alert us that he was coming, it could have been a serious incident for both the cyclist and one or both of us (he was going at a pretty good clip). We are still annoyed that he did not yell out at least! We are seeing seeing more and more pilgrims on our journey now, apparently the closer we get to Santiago, the more pilgrims we will see. We are starting to recognize some of several of the travellers as they are walking similar distances each day. It is neat to converse with them about their journeey. We all arrived safely though, Gail arriving earlier in the morning. She has toured the city (population about 17,000). She travelled with the lady (Linda) from Auckland today and found the companionship great. We decided to change it up and have our big meal at 2 instead of 7 or 8pm. Most of us had the the Menu del dia for 16 euros (our most expense pilgrim meal yet), but it was worth it. Hotel Roma did not disappoint us. The menu del dia usually includes a first plate, second plate and then dessert. Although, there were not many choices for the first or second plate, we had about 15 choices for our dessert. The crepes with chestnuts, whip cream and carmel sauce was decadent! Somehow, I thought that the chestnuts would be crunchy and flavourful, but they were soft and more bland, however, a great dessert all the same. So we feasted again. We are thankful that we are expending a lot of calories on our journey or we would be in trouble. We are averaging 35,000 to 53,000 steps a day as we often tour the villages/towns/or the city we are staying in. Tomorrow we are heading to Pontomarin about 22-23 km. It is supposed to be cooler (about 15 degrees) and rain. We are hopeful that the forecast is wrong as much of our footwear is still soaked from today (tried the small grocery bags between my socks and hiking shoes, no, it did not work, everything was wet)! I think we will all need new hiking shoes when we are done :)) Buenas noches, Sandy