I was vaguely undecided. I’m not quite sure what vaguely undecided means. But that was me this morning. I again decided to leave when the Lady from Atlanta left but I didnt want to prebook and she had a booking in Lavacola. I was still eager to see what was happening in other towns and make a two day walk out of the next 28 kilometres.

Anyway we headed out at a reasonable hour and had a light breakfast at the pension where we had stayed.

I asked for a photo of our host before departing. At first he was perplexed (or so I thought), then he put his hand up as if to say “No!” but before we knew it he was out from behind the counter with his pilgrim outfit with Kangaroo pins in his hat. Quite a character and definitely worthy of a photo. His wife very kindly came out for a snap as well. Apparently we were there on the second last night of the season as they will be closing for winter on the 31st October.

As you might imagine there were very few pilgrims enroute again and quite frankly the bars that were open were almost empty. Yesterday we had been traumatised when nothing was open after Arzua except Tia Dolores so when we came across a lovely breakfast stop not too far from where we had started today we stopped again and had a second coffee. A Dutch woman dropped in and had some muesli and yoghurt and praised the quality of the food. A pity we weren’t quite ready for second breakfast yet!

We kept walking through rural areas and busy roads and I realised I was on target for Lavacolla and finishing in Santiago on the morrow.

So after a number of ups and downs and crossing over and under busy roads we finally arrived at Lavacola. Only 11 kilometres out from Santiago with an arrival on the morrow a day earlier than I had planned for.

We had visions of another fancy meal at the local restaurant recommended by our host. As it turned out it was a little underwhelming harking back to the pilgrim meals of the Meseta at twice the price. On a positive note a number of pilgrims wandered in and out and we realised there were at least 20 other people likely to arrive with us at the Cathedral on the morrow!

Actually we checked the web count for arrivals at the pilgrim office today. It was only 386 for a while but went up to 746 after dinner. Many would arrive from other caminos such as the Portuguese, the Norte and the Ingles so who knows how many would be on the road into Santiago with us tomorrow. In peak season thousands arrive each day with over 400,000 in the last year.

Of course I will be exceptionally careful heading in and will stop to inspect that nasty hole in the ground that caused me so much distress last time I walked this way. Let’s hope the local council has finally repaired the walkway! Stay tuned for our arrival on the morrow.

Buenas noches