Distance: 21.2km Steps: 26,909 Time: 5.5 hrs

Today was to be a shorter day, the guide book telling us 18.4 km & Mr D’s gadget saying we covered 21km – so who knows? It felt like a shorter walk. Started off early at 7.30am after breakfast. There are a lot that start early, others that start later 8 or even 9am. The nice thing with early morning starts, is that it’s pleasant before the day heats up & you see the beautiful sunrise. As we set out of town, there was one such beautiful sunrise coming up behind us.

Todays walk was slightly similar to yesterday, except the road wasn’t flat & monotonous but rather up & down & around the bend. We passed through the next village called Sansol, then right next to it, down, around & up into the next village called Torres del Rio. This one village really was pretty & inviting. I had wished we had stayed here. This village is the one that has the Albergue in the movie The Way with the strange man. That strange man has moved on but that Albergue is still there. We passed more open vineyards & pastures, pass a man selling cold drinks that has made a garden of rock piles. Further on another pop up cafe with music blaring out of a portable CD player on top of the car roof. The music being modern English songs we hear on the radio. It strikes me the Spanish listen to a lot of our music. In Cafes & restaurants. I wonder those that don’t speak English then do not understand the lyrics of the songs that are so familiar to me. We could of done with this all yesterday – the food & drink! The music! The chairs in shade!

There is many ruins about, structures that use to be homes, missing half its walls & roofs. These are so interesting for me to look at, I like to imagine whom use to live in them & how long ago they have been there.

We arrived in Viana by 12.30pm & booked into an Albergue. Mr D was so happy today to not be feeling utterly exhausted as he has been every other day. I’m still being challenged physically today with what feels like Achilles tendinitis. It was not an easy walk for me as I had to go slowly, the back of my heel was painfully sore inside my boot.

We grabbed lunch & I used the ice cubes in my drink to wrap around my Achilles, now just have to rest it up & hope to walk tomorrow.

We met a couple from Melbourne that are walking the Camino as their honeymoon. Earlier on the track I saw a lady Pilgrim walking the other way with her dog that was also carrying his own panniers over his back probably carrying his own dog food in them!

Most Pilgrims like to arrive mid to late afternoon so they can find a bed, shower, hand wash their clothes & hang them up while they go have a beer. Then if clothes are not dry, they peg them to the back of their backpack while they walk the next day. Like today, one man had his pair of underwear jocks strung across the back of his backpack for everyone to see. Yesterday we noticed the ones that come late after 6pm, too much a long day when you eat dinner usually about 7pm. I think we have a good routine, even through Mr D would prefer getting in at a time similar to today.

We finished the evening having a quiet meal in the pub after I went into a place that provided free ice packs so I could use it on my Achilles area. We shall see what tomorrow brings…..