Stage 48 - Castro Dozón to A Laxe (19.78km): 17/10/2014 08:05

These are typical of the statues and crosses along the caminos

The forecast I checked on last night said that it wouldn't rain today and in fact indicated that we would have no rain during the remainder of our time in Spain. We therefore decided to pack our ponchos but we did take the precaution of placing them at the top of our backpacks.

The clouds looked ominously dark when we left the albergue and they stayed like that throughout our walk. The local bar didn't open until 8:30am and so we hoped for breakfast 4km further on. We arrived there at 9:15am to find that bar still closed and in the end we walked almost 14km before we were able to combine breakfast and lunch at around noon. Chocolate and prunes kept us going until then.

When we emerged from the bar where we had lunch it was raining, just heavily enough to require the ponchos. Some 15 minutes later it had stopped and it was too warm for ponchos so they came off again. We had to put them on for another period before we reached our destination.

In the latter stages of today's walk Pauline complained of a sore foot. When she took off her boot to investigate she found her sock a bit blood-stained. It wasn't obvious where the blood was coming from so she changed into her trekking sandals for the remainder of the day. After showering she found a small cut on her toe and isn't too concerned about it.

Our albergue tonight is busier than last night. David was here when we arrived, as were Yvonne from Switzerland and Christophe, from France, who is walking the Camino de Iverno. Another Frenchman and five Portuguese peregrinos arrived later.

We had a very interesting dinner with Nelson from Portugal, Bernard from Paris (originally from near Marseille) and Christophe from Toulouse. Bernard was close to our age and had an English mother and an Irish grandmother called O'Driscoll. The other two were in there 30s. Nelson was on a little-known Camino starting near Coimbra. Christophe seems to spend much of his life on the Camino. For three months each year he is paid to walk it, as part of a scheme to rehabilitate young offenders. For that period he will accompany one young person who might otherwise be sent to prison.

When we returned to the albergue four Spanish peregrinos had also settled in, so it was a busy place.

We are now just three days from Santiago and plan to walk around 16km each day - at this stage that should not put too much of a strain on us. We have enjoyed our adventure immensely but we are now looking forward to getting home to Menlo.

We still plan to return to Galway late on Thursday, but only for a change of clothes, before we head back to Dublin Airport to fly to Scotland for Canon O'Connell's funeral next Friday. We will return the same day.

905km completed, 48.5km to go

A pleasant woodland path

The Spanish love to put their motorways and railways up on stilts

Next: Stage 49 - A Laxe to Bandeira