I had planned to jump forward to Cacabelos today and hoped to have the energy to take the alternate route past a beautiful old house I wanted to photograph. The truth is I still wasn’t filled with energy and still required too many tissues throughout the day.

Anyway I headed out in the dark as usual as I needed to catch a bus at 8.20am and the sun wouldn’t be up until almost 9. I walked about half an hour through the streets of Ponferrada and passed the Saturday night revellers having hot chocolate at the all night cafe on the way. I eventually arrived at the bus station and couldn’t locate the pedestrian entry and had to walk through the bus entry hoping I wouldn’t be run over on the way.

As it turned out there was only me and two others for some time so I sat and had a coffee and called my sisters at home in oz.

The bus soon arrived and I explained to the driver where I wanted to be dropped off but as the bus progressed and the light crept through the clouds I could see it was still wet and miserable so I decided to stay on until Villafranca and walk to Trabadelo from there after visiting a coffee shop and another farmacia.

The trouble was that every street I went down had road works and I eventually had some man lead me out to the camino and before I knew it I was on my way up the hill and out of the other side of town! I was hungry and I wanted a coffee but I had some potato chips and chocolate in my backpack along with a full water bladder so I wasn’t going to die of starvation.

It was a long walk with most of it being behind a concrete barrier along the side of a highway of sorts.

I started seeing a few different people as I had jumped forward at least a day and a half by the bus and the taxi into Ponferrada. Another moving rest day really.

Anyway I arrived at Trabadelo and checked in and went for lunch at the bar across the street.

It was a comfortable stay with only 10 beds in a very large room and a very tasty pilgrim meal was prepared by Susi and shared with all 10 pilgrims, a visitor from Brisbane, another Aussie who was all alone and staying at a nearby hotel and with Susi and Fermin themselves.

When my passport was handed back to me a vegemite sachet fell out and I thought I had mistakenly left my emergency supply in the wrong bag. Turns out Australian guests are treated to this special surprise by Susi’s husband Fermin who takes great pride in checking people in with a welcome drink and a joke or two. Now I have two emergency Vegemite’s to use when needed!

Buenas noches.