• Tuesday 14th October, 2014

• Melide: Hotel Carlos, €20

It was a chilly night in the room so I slept with all my clothes on and fleece inside my sleeping bag… It wouldn’t have been so bad except that the position of my bunk was next to the window and the person who’s bed was nowhere near the window insisted on it being open… Fair enough, I usually want a window open too in a dorm room, but when you can already see your breath in the air because it’s so cold with the window closed, you know it’s going to be even colder with it open!

I managed to stomach some toast for breakfast and left the Albergue into a very crisp and cool morning, I could have done with my gloves on. I had taken the alternative “Roman way” and it was a track surrounded by heather and the occasional forest of gum trees. I descended into a valley shrouded in mist and it got even colder until the sun came up and started to warm my back as I walked.

I passed through quaint tiny Galician stone hamlets and watched as women herded cows from the fields along the track in front of me. I wondered what jobs the men were doing?

There were more moss-covered tracks with mushrooms small streams and birds singing away… It was delightful to be walking with the sunshine and no rain!

The first 20km were ok so I decided to push onto Melide but the last 10km were quite a struggle and I realised a little too late that I wasn’t quite ready yet for a long day of walking. The last 10km took forever and although I love the communal and social side of albergues, I needed to be close to my own bathroom again so I booked into a hotel in my guide (without realising how far away it was from the Primitivo) and was incredibly thankful to finally arrive!

This hotel is on the camino Frances on the outskirts of Melide as you would enter the town, so tomorrow I need to walk back almost 1 kilometre the same way I came… But it’s a terrific value hotel and the staff are very friendly and the restaurant (open at 8:30pm for dinner) was very accommodating in serving me some plain food when I mentioned I wasn’t feeling well. I would recommend this place if you don’t mind walking a bit extra.

Day 14, San Roman da Retorta to Melide

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