July 17, 2008

Day 82: 4 July- A Brea to Monte de Gozo

Hardly any photos today - guess why??? Finally we got some of the expected Galician Rain!
The first part of the day's track was past villages and in some forest. It was a Long Way today until we could have our breakfast stop - about 12km or so. And we were well ready for it when we got it, at a cafe that was doing a roaring trade. By this time it was really pouring with rain and everyone was quite saturated......

Next part of the route became a little more industrial, past the airport land etc. It felt longer than it should have... maybe with the rain and mist. But eventually we reached Monte de Gozo. It was quite hard to find the albergue at first as the mist was so thick! Our original intention had been to walk on into Santiago today, but with the lousy weather we decided to stop here for the night and walk the last 5km into Santiago in the morning.
I am not sure what I was expecting at Monte de Gozo - some kind of army barracks. But we all loved it there! The hospitalero, Manuel, was very friendly indeed, and it turned out to be a place of reunions. Here is Mr Shenechi from Japan. We had seen him on the day we climbed the Pyrenees, and at various places along the way, but hadn't seen him for some time. Mick from Oz, with the dislocated shoulder, was also there.
Eventually the rain stopped and the mist lifted, and I went walking nearby to see this monument to the visit of JP2 as a pilgrim here.
One of the great things we learned was that we could stay more than one night in Monte de Gozo. So, it was going to be possible to do my last 5km stint as a walking pilgrim with a small daypack - I could go into Santiago, obtain my Compostela, and come back by bus later in the day to sleep here another night! Yeah!

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