24. Negreira to Olveiroa 3/8/12

I was awake by 6.30am as I had gone to bed really early - so I got up and packed and was on my way by 7.30am - my earliest start on the Camino to date.  It was really foggy and it was quite eerie walking through forests and past quiet wee villages that didn't have any people in sight.

Photo for Mallie so she can see if she does the Camino on her own she will have some feline friends on the way

The fog only started to clear about 9-9.30am and it was lovely when the sun came out.

Resting point

I stopped here for about an hour. It was a good viewpoint with seats, drinking water and a water bath that came in handy for pilgrims to bath their sore feet.  The water was so cold it seemed to give relief to them.  It seemed that every person that came along had some problem with their feet. I was still wearing the shoes from God - but it was here that I decided that I did not want to wear them anymore. I carried them though just in case the Crocs weren't comfortable on the really rocky surfaces. 

I loved ambling along the paths and taking photos and having ciggies if it was a lovely flat or downhill bit.  It took until 11am to do the first 12 km of the day. 

I seemed to be in the mood to take lots of photos of flowers: 

Here are some others I took until the 12km mark:

In Galicia the shell is in the opposite direction to other parts of Spain
- so in Galicia you have to follow the fingers of he shell

Another feline friend Mallie

It was at the coffee stop at the 12 km mark that I gave the shoes back to God. 

Crocs with Socks (for the chilly mornings) would do this Kiwi

The first cat that let me pat it

She's a tart - she didn't even look to see who was patting her
but she did move ever so slightly so that I could scratch under her chin more easily

The pack felt much lighter now I had the shoes from God out of it, and after drinking some water from my camelback and eating the 3 nectarines I'd been carrying - it felt like I didn't have a pack on anymore.  From taking four and a half hours to go 12 km the next 7 km only took just over an hour.  Got told twice by different people this morning that the Crocs would not be suitable for walking in - and by one of those people that they would probably break.

Those are pilgrims walking along the camino

Them there's cows

Love those purple flowers

Coffee stop at 19km which was followed by a beer stop at 19.5km

Just to prove I don't wear socks with my Crocs all the time!
Only when it's chilly in the mornings.

These are typical in Galicia and are used for storing grains in.
Someone told me that they may also store meat in them as well.

I'm not sure what this woman is drying - but it's not wheat for bread - that much I understood

The albergues were all full so a group of Italians, a woman from NY, a Korean guy and I all stayed here.  
I had my own room again with a great big double bed which was heaven. 

 I really didn't want to eat with people this night so had a quick shower and then quickly left and wandered into town and found myself a little spot on an outside table. The funny thing was the people at the next table knew me - I'd chatted to them a few times that day but they looked so different with their evening clothes on. The woman looked like she'd just stepped out of a magazine and had this long shiny curly thick brown hair.  They'd both had caps on in the day and the typical pilgrim's clothes of shorts and a t-shirt.  It was great to chat to them for a few minutes and then they went back to their privacy and I had mine (after we'd taken each other's photo).

Galician soup - a bit like pea and ham soup. It was delicious.
I did my best to drink the whole bottle of wine but I left about an inch in the bottom.

Lots of meat and Galician goulash of white beans, cabbage and potatoes

The homemade brown Galician bread at the restaurant I had dinner at.  The waiter showed it to me and told me that they would be open for breakfast from 6am.  I was there at 9.15 (thought I'd wait till after the rush hour).  The toast was delicious and I'd bought a couple of bananas so I could have banana on toast.
They also had freshly squeezed orange juice and good coffee.

After dinner I headed back to the albergue, got my washing in and the woman put it in the drier for about 10 mins as it wasn't quite dry.  I sat and chatted to some of the others staying at the albergue and then went to bed, sending Jeff a text to tell him I had my own room if he wanted to ring when he got up.  He rang at 2am my time and it was only when I got out of bed to go and have a cigarette outside that I realized my calves were a bit seized up.  

This is the moon I took the photo of Jeff while we were chatting on the phone  that night :)