A Change In The Weather

I spent the night in Gonzar, which is about 8 km past Portomarin. I was headed towards Casanova, which is about 5 I'm past Palas del Rei. I'm trying to skip the bigger towns that I have already seen, and stay in small pueblos, in smaller albergues. 

I got up this morning, did my stretching, organized my pack, drank my tea and ate my banana. I checked outside and decided it was already too warm to wear a long sleeve shirt. The sunrise was spectacular. 

And here is a sunrise selfie

I saw a bunch of cows. This is cow country. There is vaca caca and flies everywhere. Eau de Vaca is the prevailing fragrance. I often wonder how people stand it. But probably if you grow up with it, fragrance would seem normal. 

And then I took an accidental shadow selfie while photographing this cross. 

And then there were ovejas. 

And a spider

Because I am in Galicia, today was up a hill, down a hill, repeat until you reach your destination. But, along the way the scenery is exquisite. When I get tired, I sometimes have to remind myself to stop and look around. Here's what I miss if I don't:

Suddenly around midmorning I realized I was getting cold. I noticed a fog had moved in on the area. I put on my long sleeve shirt and I could feel the dampness. There was a little wind too. At one point I could actually see the air move with the wind because it was so laden with water. That was amazing. Then around noon the skies cleared and it was warm again. 

I stopped in Palas de Rei to pick up stuff for my special diet. And on the way out of town I saw these old friends. 

I took pictures of these two before, but it was always too dark when I was leaving town to get a good picture. 

So I got to Casanova looking forward to what was described as a comfy friendly private Albergue with a community meal. I walked through Casanova, which took about two minutes. I couldn't see the Albergue anywhere. I looked on Gronze and finally figured out that the Albergue I wanted was back about 3 km in Ponte. I was standing in front of the municipal Albergue. There was no choice, because there was no way I was walking back over the same ground I had just walked. 

So I am in the Municipal Albergue in Casanova and it is just fine. I met three Spanish girls who live and work in London, because they can't get jobs in Spain. We chatted for quite a while about all sorts of things, like the Camino and how to survive it, the importance of family, health care, and the world economy. I can't think of a nicer way to pass the time. 

Oh I forgot to mention, I have finally mastered the paper sheets. That means I can get them on the mattress without swearing or tearing them. 

Now we have dark cloudy skies and it is supposed to rain any minute. I hope it stops before morning. 

Good night all.