We started at 6am in the dark to avoid the rain but it had already started. Rain, thunderstorms and fog punctuated the day. We stopped for breakfast just before a downpour which was fortunate. I had rain pants (that didn't make that horrible swipe sound at every step) and an excellent raincoat and rain cover for my pack. Celia had a good raincoat and fairly waterproof pants but her pack got wet. Cressida and Shayne had ponchos Taft worked well with their peaked hats. Margins raincoat turned out no to be rainproof at all and after shivering through many miles found a cafe selling ponchos and was then warm. Ron and Michael got soaking wet shorts. All of us, regardless of "waterproof" shoes or not ended the walk in varying degrees of saturated feet. I am very thankful it is our last day as my feet turned to prunes by the end of the day. It's a measure of the tiny moments of spirituality of even the short section of the walk we completed that when one pilgrim told Margot the "the rain washed our soul" that we didn't roll our eyes but accepted the blessing of the comment.
We reconnected with Alf and Patrick who had their own exciting trip getting from Madrid to SdC.
We went to the 7:30 mass which was in Spanish with a few blessings in English but the structure of the service was exactly the same. The botufumero swung and it was a very memorable and moving part of the service. The 15 person choir was lovely and the sung another song after the service which added to the celebratory feel of the service.
We all celebrated the end of the walk with dinner at O Botrco tapas bar. It's easy to identify the pilgrims around town as we all hobble!
27.0 km today.
We all celebrated the end of the walk with dinner at O Botrco tapas bar. It's easy to identify the pilgrims around town as we all hobble!
27.0 km today.
