Melide to Arzua

I've referred a number of times to the "bible" of the Camino, which is John Brierley's book, A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago.  He has an elevation chart for each day, but we are finding that it isn't always very accurate.  Today was supposed to be pretty level, but we found we were either going up or down for most of the day.

We are again very thankful for the great weather, so unusual for this area for this time of year.  And because it was only a 14 km day, we took our time, and had 2 coffee breaks along with a leisurely lunch along the way.

Some shots of what we walked and saw this day...

See what I mean about the ups and downs?  

One of our coffee stops today...

Then there are narrow stone bridges to cross here and there, and while I usually abandon Diane to her own fate crossing these bridges, Jeff is a perfect gentleman,putting me to shame!

As we get closer to Santiago, private entrepreneurs set up small businesses along the way.  It wasn't until I checked the pictures at the end of this day that I noticed the disability of the first fellow, who was happy to have his photo taken...

We reached another sort of milestone today as well, the 50 km marker...

Also as we get closer to Santiago, we see more and more eucalyptus forests, which are a staple food for koala bears in Australia.  We're not sure what they are used for here...

Oh, and we figured out,what those odd, narrow structures are mainly used for.  It should have been obvious from the start, and I know I did mention early on that they looked like mini corn cribs.  Turns out that's just what they are, though in many cases they are largely decorative...

And I'm always on the lookout for unique signs, especially relating to man-eating dogs.  I almost missed this one because of a small van parked in front of the gate...

As you can see from some of the shots below, we are still in high country and every viewpoint is a view point worth stopping for...

We are now in a small hotel facing the main street of Arzua.  We've just come back from an outdoor cafe where we had our usual refreshment following a hot day, and as we sat there a couple came by on 2 separate bikes with 2 children in tow, one perched on the back of mom's bike, the other in an attachment to dad's bike.  We also saw a mom pushing a stroller who is making the 100 km trek to Santiago from Sarria with her almost newborn, and because of our several breaks, we twice came across her modestly breast feeding her little one along the way.  Which is to say that you find all sorts of people doing the Camino: singles, couples, three generations, families with children and even with infants!

Of course we are among the veterans, as most of the people we are meeting in this last week have begun their treks much further along the way than St. Jean, France.  But we are learning to be very humble about that, don't worry!

Distance today: 14.3 kms

Time on the road: 4:45

Total distance to date: 756.3

Walking days remaining: 2