Day 28 - 25.3km - Portomarin to Palas de Rei

We have a couple longer days coming up now as we begin to return to the guidebook type distances leading us into Santiago.

Portomarin, as with a lot of these towns, is up on a hillside above the river, so our day started with a steep downhill and a bridge over the river leading out of town. The weather forecast has changed and we are expecting some considerable rain over the next few days, so an early away and a quick step is the order of the day to try and cover some distance before the heavens open on us.

The Galacian countryside still keeps offering moments of beauty as we walk through tree lined tracks, occasionally broken with sunlight filtering through, purple lavender-esque plants scattered around the base of the trees. It makes for pleasant walking!

Like the last few days though, apart from the march, and the click clack of our walking poles there is little to stop and see and so the constant footsteps, in time to the best of the music in our headphones keeps us stepping forward.

For anyone that likes trying different music I have been trying to find different things to listen to to help keep the feet moving. So fire up Spotify and give the album "Another way to fly" by "The Sidh" a little listen.

We marched quick for about 2 hours and then the inevitable hit. I have carried half a kilo of poncho over 700km across Spain. And finally I was glad to have done so. Looking like a true fashion statement wrapped in waterproof orange fabric we resumed the march.

And down came the rain. Sideways as we walked through fields. In big heavy drops as it rolled of the leaves as we passed through woodlands.

We both smiler and breathed in the wet air.

It was great.

One weird thing we have noticed is that all the way along the Camino someone has spray painted "Michael Jackson", in a response to a previous pilgrim who spray painted "Jesus" everywhere. We saw a few more again today. We are hoping that there is a big dancing holographic MJ when we hit the cathedral square!

We rolled into Palas de Rei quite early and got checked in. Albergue Castro was one of the better places we have stayed. Our beds had little cubby holes with a plug socket, a bed light and even curtains to offer us a little privacy.

We relaxed for a little while and I tried to nap, until a group of Spaniards with no indoor volume control made that impossible. Instead moving down to the cafe where I bumped into smily Sandra the German from the day before, Dirk the dour expressionless German, and Godfrey.

The restaurant had good reviews and so we shared a good meal and wine.

Tomorrow will be one of our longer days and so we plan to be up and away early. The paths are a lot busier now we have passed Sarria, so an early start will get us out in front.

Sweet dreams pilgrims. We start before 6 tomorrow!!