Stage 47 - Cea to Castro Dozón (16.44km): 16/10/2014 08:02

A break in the rain allowed for the one photograph of the day

Canon Jim O'Connell RIP

It has been a bleak day. Soon after arriving at our albergue we received the sad news that our long-time friend, Canon James O'Connell, had died. A native of north Cork, he served the community in the Diocese of Paisley in Scotland since his ordination in 1948. It was he who trained myself and my brothers as altar boys. He expected the best and had one Bishop describe his team as the "best altar servers outside of the Vatican". Actually, I am pretty certain I wasn't serving that day but, nevertheless, accepted the reflected glory. 

Fr Jim made a lasting impression on all who knew him, as evidenced by the fact that to mark the 60th anniversary of his ordination more than 30 of his former altar servers, from his time in St Lawrence's, Greenock in the 50s and 60s, held a surprise party for him.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam 

It stopped raining last night at about 8:30pm but was back at it in earnest when we set out this morning. We left the albergue at 8:00am and stopped for some breakfast at a nearby bar, waiting for daylight. The rain varied between heavy and torrential. Paths that were made for walking had turned into streams but we still had to walk on them. It became futile to look where best to put our feet.

The day started with us walking through a series of villages, running into one and other, but we were on a main road and the houses were, for the most part, fairly modern. Eventually we left the road and found ourselves going up hills and down into valleys for much of the day. At least that is how it seemed until I looked at the elevation profile for the walk. The downs were very short and the ups very long. The day's highest point was almost 400 metres higher the lowest. Most of the hills were fairly gentle climbs. 

The rain eventually stopped shortly after noon and we had nearly an hour's respite before it started again. The rain, however, was replaced by something of a gale and for the last kilometre to the albergue we had both wind and rain, probably the heaviest of the day.

The rain continued until after 7:00pm when we were finally able to walk back down to a bar in the village. Fortunately I had some pasta with me and someone had left a few potatoes in the kitchen so we were both able to conjure up something of a makeshift meal while the rain persisted.

The only other peregrino in the albergue is David, an Australian of our own age. He is working to a schedule very similar to our own. We should be seeing more of him over the next few days as we all fly out of Santiago on October 23 and, like us, he is booked into the Hospedaria San Martin Pinario, for the three nights from October 20.

885km completed, 68.5km to go.

Next: Stage 48 - Castro Dozón to A Laxe