It was a nice quiet morning as we left town and passed down the hill through the clouds. All those tourists that were up there yesterday must have caught a bus out because hardly anyone was walking. We enjoyed the birds singing – we enjoyed the sounds of the countryside – we enjoyed the tranquility. Slowly however we realised we could hear the marching in the distance. It was not like the dark armies of mordor – I know this. They were singing happy tunes. Nevertheless they filled us with fear. Whom doth breech our silence! Wherefore hast our peaceful journey gone?

It wasn’t long until we could hear them clearly. It was another pack of school kids. At least this mob were in a pack. They weren’t strewn across the path for miles, churning dust, frightening other pilgrims for hours. They passed quickly. Not quietly, just quickly. That was good enough for us.

It was generally a pleasant journey down – with a few unexpected ups. We also saw three generations of Aussies, funnily enough they were from Brisbane too! We assumed that a lot of tourist buses must have driven their people back down yesterday. It wasn’t as busy as we thought it would be.

We passed a great pilgrim monument which entertained us for a short while on the way down.

I had been dealing with an ear ache for the last few days which had miraculously disappeared after O’Cebreiro. After encountering Korea’s national snoring champion in the albergue in Roncenvalles I had been shoving those darn earplugs in so tight my poor little ear canals had rebelled for a few days! And no I couldnt find a farmacia to buy some eardrops just when I might have needed them. Thank heavens the pain had gone with our visit to the Holy Grail!

On arrival in Tricastela we had one of the best meals we had seen on the Camino. All in all we had a lovely day. We spotted Michelle and JC briefly as we left a cafe 3ks out juas as they were arriving.

The only slight hiccup probably occured because of pain. My heel was still not playing fairly and was now feeling a little swollen on the sole side so we sent the bags again. The place I had called to reserve looked somewhat abandoned when we arrived and after a brief panic I called the number again and the man directed me a few hundred yards down the street to the new place. Thank heavens for that we thought our bags had been lost!

Buen Camino!