Castaneda - Brea No 36 22km

When I reached my pension "The Way" the marker said 25km to Santiago 😄👣👣 They say the 1st part of the Camino is physical, the second emotion and the 3rd spiritual.  Today I must say I did feel  spiritual.  As I walked through the pathways lined with chestnut and eucalyptus trees I really felt that my grandad was taking a walk with me, he would have loved those trails.  It was a drizzly day and I can just see him in his surrey sweater,  cap and gum boots having a smoke.  It's weird when you walk for hours and hours what the mind conjures up.  Maybe it was all those nut trees.

When I was leaving Ribadiso there was a woman on the hill struggling, she was limping badly,  when I approached her I asked if she was ok, she said she's fallen a few days back, her ankle wasn't broken. Maryanne from Germany was gonna walk 5km an then get a taxi.  I offered to tape her ankle, which I did and then carried on.  She managed to get to Arzua.  Crazy!  I also saw Kathleen n Jessica. Kathleen had been singing my praises and calling me Joan of Arc, the first aid supplies I'd given her was working.  She's slowed her days down but at least she'll finish.

I'm back walking on my own, and I love it, I booked a pension on booking.com.  I'm in a single room with my own bathroom and a balcony.  The host Roger doesn't have a pilgrim menu but he's got all kinds of takeout menus.  Once I was showered I went down to the kitchen for some wine. 3 Euros for the bottle. 🍷🍷🍷 I ordered a ham n pineapple pizza and chatted with Roger.  He opened The Pension on The Way 3 years ago. It's open from May 1st till end of October then he goes home to England. My pizza arrived hot, I ate 1/2 a large so it must have been good.  Roger booked me into Casa Lavacolla, it's about 15 Kms.  Hopefully it won't rain.  John, Raye, Mike and Jackie are in Madrid.  I wasn't able to meet up with Kathy and her musicians, maybe in Santiago.  Until Lavacolla Buen Camino 👣👣👣👣