Going Solo

II left Melide this morning on my own as Glenise has "had enough", enough no sleep, enough downhill walking, and enough being tired. She has opted to bus straight to Santiago. Fair enough, we have been unfortunate to have shared dormitories with very active snorers. There were a couple of spots today that I think Glenise might have struggled with, in particular crossing a narrow stone bridge. When I woke up this morning I thought maybe Glenise's choice to go by bus was a good one, but then I checked my emails and saw more donations had been made to #georgiascamino, what better motivation. Plus I would have missed out on a beautiful walk. I left Melide at 8 15am, in the dark. Sunrise wasn't untill 8.57am I followed a French family hoping they knew the route out of town, they didn't, and turned back. I checked my gps app and found that we were on the right route after all. When I caught up with Raphael, Bernadette and their 10 year old granddaughter we had a laugh about the blind leading the blind. The camino today took me though lovely eucalyptus forests, over streams, and up and down some quite steep hills. Thanks Matt at Evolve Fitness Matamata for the training programme. I was quite chuffed with how I got up those hills. Why do the Spanish build their towns either on the top of hills or in the valleys below? I believe tomorrow is even more up and down hills. Coming out of Melide in the dark I walked between small farmyards. It was too dark to take many photos but I did manage to get a photo of a lavanderei, a former communal laundry. The Galician landscape is very different from the first few days on the camino. Now it's far more rural farmland, very pretty and very like NZ in many ways. One of the joys on the camino is checking into your albergue and realising you are the first to arrive and that you have the showers and laundry facilities all to yourself, bliss for at least half an hour! Such is life on the camino. Back to food! Last night I tried octopus, it was served with a boil up of spinach and potatoes and was delicious. Thanks for the recommendation Thomsen. Now I am in Arzua and tomorrow head to Salceda.