Camino Day 34 - October 10

Day 5 in Galicia, and day 5 of rain.. (Are you noticing a trend here?)

 

Today, we walked 27 km from Palas del Rey to Ribadiso da Baixo. It was much like the past few days.. It rained off and on, and we saw lovely, green scenery as we wandered up and down the hills.. What was different for me today, though, was that it felt like a normal walking day for me, for the first time in many days.. The pain in my shin is gone, the discomfort and strain is minimal, and I have been able to increase my walking pace a fair bit. I'm still walking more slowly than I was, but I'm sure both injury and fatigue have contributed to that.. I felt good to have my walking back to normal, finally..

 

We had actually considered walking further than Ribadiso tonight.. The next town along isn't too far down the road, and is considerably larger. Ribadiso is also said to be a popular place to stay, so our guidebooks cautioned that the albergues are often full early in the day.. But, as we approached Ribadiso, it felt like we were ready to stop, so we decided to stay there if we could find accommodation, and we did.. We settled in to a private room at the albergue, and were even able to get outside and sit in the warm sun for a while in the late afternoon when it emerged from behind the clouds.. After not seeing or feeling too much sun over the past few days, this felt really good!

 

One funny part of the day happened as we were heading out (two doors up the road) for supper. We heard bells.. Now, I know I have written about the church bells, but there is also another kind of bell we've been hearing a lot of, especially recently.. What is the expression? "We need more cowbell"? Many of the cows here - and there are a lot of them - wear cowbells, and the bells ring every time the cows move their heads, including to eat, which they seem to do a lot.. It is funny sometimes how much noise comes from a field full of bells constantly on the go.. Sometimes, the bells are especially loud, which tells us that a cow is very close, as they have been on a few occasions, separated from us usually (but not always!)  by a fence. And not only do the cows here wear bells, but so too do some of the horses and many of the sheep.. There are a LOT of bells ringing here in Spain..

 

So, tonight, as we were heading out for supper, we heard bells. Ribadiso is a very small town (population 10), with one main street running through the middle of it. And there we saw a herd of cows, ambling down the street, right in the centre of town, with the farmer behind them, guiding them into a barn right across the street from where we were staying. It's not everyday we share the street with a herd of cows.. Seems like they were more used to it than I was.. Quite a racket of mooing and bells.. Definitely made me smile! Also made us watch our step extra carefully as we walked down the road behind the cows..

 

I hope you have had at least one moment in your day which brought a smile to your face, as the cows (and their bells) did for me..

 

Blessings,

susan