Day 29 - 30km - Palas de Rei to Ribadiso

These guidebooks and apps are crap! Excuse my French. But these guidebooks and apps are so far off the mark!

Every single day we look at the guidebook, ah only 21km today. Ooo a bit longer, 24km today. Tomorrow looks tough it's almost 27km.

Never are they accurate. And that turned out to be the case again today. The guidebook and the Camino Ninja app told us it was a 26km day. So we braced ourselves, it's the longest day we have done in almost 3 weeks since we started pacing ourselves, but it's what we need to cover to get into Santiago on the 25th.

So the alarm went off (on vibrate mode under my pillow) at 5.50 and we arose and packed quickly and as quietly as possible and hit the road by 6:10. We are on a mission today. A long walk with a good whack of rain expected later. So we wanted to get some miles done before we stopped for anything. The usual click clack of our walking poles sounded different in the dark, misty grey of the pre-sunrise camino. We were alone, walking along the road and through forest tracks. As the sun rose we overtook or were overtaken by only a few pilgrims. It was a massive difference to the usual stream of people we see when setting of later.

We walked into one heavily wooded area in the gloom, and as we emerged less than 10 minutes later the sun was rising and everything was basked in the early morning light.

The peace and quiet and the smells of wet woodland were beautiful with stunning tracks leading us through eucalyptus forests, giant trees without bark.

It was a pleasure to be walking again and we are grateful for the time we have had on this journey, and conscious with each road marker that we are running out of distance to walk. 58km to go... We walked through woodlands and up and down gravel tracks.

56km to go... A small town with the usual pilgrim cafe offering Heavos Con Bacon (bacon and eggs).

54km to go... Over a small bridge over a river.

52km to go... We are 15km into our day. We stopped for breakfast at a cafe. Nik had his new favourite of Tostado Jamon, a big slice of toast topped with finely sliced iberico ham and olive oil. I had pancakes topped with bananas and cream. And the just for the fun of it Churros dipped in chocolate. I am on holiday after all

50km to go. The rain starts. Ponchos out. Headphones in. It's marching time.

48km to go. Another "bridge" this time big rocks over a small river. And pilgrims stopping for selfies and group photos. It is pretty here

46km to go. We can't be too far away now we have been walking for 6 hours. Starting to ache all over. And Nik has a bit of pain back in his ankle. Push through. We can do it.

44km to go. The rain is still coming. And the pain is a little stronger now. But we must be nearly there. The guidebook said 26km and we have done 27km almost.

43km to go. Let's check the map. We must have missed it. 1.6km from our accomodation.

42km to go. We turned a corner, and as with a lot of our journey, a bloody big downhill and uphill- and opposite us pilgrims walking up the hill. We always seem to book the place that finishes the day with a bloody great uphill. Nik is not engaging in conversation now. It really is one foot at a time mode.

Down the hill, over the river. And up. One step at a time. One foot in front of the other. And there is the sign for the albergue it's just in front of us over the road.

We crossed the busy road and as Nik stepped off a post office van came screaming round the corner. Unnecessarily he slowed down and honked at Nik who was stepping of the road behind me.

Nik expressed his gratitude in his politest English with only a minor waving of his walking poles.

We got to Albergue Milpes at the top of the hill and checked in. I ordered us a cold beer each which we will sit and relax. It's a smaller town again and the restaurants are down the hill. Which means walking back up afterwards. Seems we will be eating here as that hill is not happening for a slightly better meal!

Tonight is laundry and chill. Tomorrow at least should be shorter. But with this guidebooks and apps, who the hell knows!

Have a relaxing evening pilgrims. 41km to go!