Friday, 17th of May 2013 - day87
Well guess what its freezing again, we start out early - ish, its about 6-7C with a chilling breeze. Some 28km to next town, being San Pedro de Rozados, the country is flatish,scrubby and in quite a lot of places soft under foot (muddy), there is a lot of surface water laying about, some times easier to walk off the track. Almost 3 hours into walking we come to a sign, suggesting we have an alternate path, its not official, its yellow paint on boards and panelling, with scallop shell stencilled motifs ...... I think, I've seen this before, some enterprising bar owner trying to detour pilgrims to, or past his door. Some times these just take you nowhere and you have to back track. GPS shows us nothing, indicate no track, WiFi with tablet, no signal.
We stick to the main track as the alternate is unmade and muddy, main track is in reasonable condition here. We trudge on, rain coming and going, wind gusty, misty at times. We are cold and bedraggled by the time we arrive at San Pedro de Rozados, its about 3pm and we are over it.
Fist thing is to check in and clean and warm up as its only 12-13C outside and the chill factor makes it feel like about 8-10C. A hot shower, wash and dry clothes, then off to the bar, its about 6pm, we want warming drinks, bar tender suggests hot port with brandy, sounds good to us. A monster glass of hot port with a slug of brandy arrives, yum ...... heady but very warming. With only eating energy bars, bananas and apples during the walk .... well lets say we are all acting on the silly side quite quickly.
The host suggests some tapas .... local delites, we don't ask as we may not like the answer to what we are eating, it is yummy and filling, a bottle of red, one of the heavy ones (a bit like a Durif). Host then brings out a big bowl of what I think is a Sheppard's Pie or something ..... it turns out to be a steak and kidney with dumplings ..... double yum. The host tries to force sweets on us, but no room.
We roll back to our accom through the cold, wet and freezing streets, once there its warm and comfortable, so a coffee and emails and blog, then.
Looking forward to putting my head down on the pillow.