Girl Alone Walks the Camino (Part 6) Palas de Rei-Melide

It’s official. My legs are finally in pain. I was wondering when that would happen. For a minute there I thought I was special and could not feel pain like mortals. Truth is, I never took a Tylenol last night, which has clearly been hiding the majority of muscle aches. Well, they were revealed today! And all the rain ain’t helping my joints. But at the moment, there are no blisters. These Danner’s are really impressive.

I made it to Melide by 2:30pm, despite starting at 9am. There was a detour. The nerve. And so I ended up walking 10 miles today, through mud puddles, major flooding, sopping wet leaves and the occasional smoothly paved footpath.

I heard bird singing, cows mooing and the ever present cawing of the crow. A friendly dog right outside of Palas de Rei jumped on me. I smelled manure, wood fires burning, olive oil cooking and fresh, wet earth. When I began, the rain and wind blew directly into my face. And there was only about an hour all day where the downpour let up enough that I could actually take off my hood. Honestly, I was warm and dry underneath all my layers and so the hike was exhilarating, peaceful and beautiful.

I only met one other person on the Camino. I stopped in San Xulian de Samos at a tiny little bar—the only one open—and met a girl named Summer from Maryland. If you’re out there reading this, Summer, Fist bump to the East Coasters, And Buen Camino! We talked for a while and then she left. I then had the pleasure of meeting Mario, the owner of the bar as well as a rather proud Knight’s Templar. He’s walked the Camino 56 times and invested in and refurbished the bar he now runs. He even wrote a song about it. Before I left, he gave me a blessing.

The other little town on this journey that I just couldn’t get enough of was Leboreiro, a medieval hamlet along the route to Melide. An old woman waking her dog chatted with me a bit, and told me I looked like her daughter.

But I am exhausted. The rain for the past several days has been brutal and, did I mention my aching legs? As much as I need to do laundry today, the thought of walking up and down the stairs to get to the laundry machine seems far too daunting. I’ll end with that. A mystery. Did she do her laundry or not? Stay tuned. 😎