Friday 31 May, 25km to Redondela Spain

Friday May 31 Samil Playa 8km west of Vigo to Albergue Parroquial Santiago Apostle Redondela Spain. 

Today’s journey was about 25km And we departed early to try to avoid hiking in the predicted 33 Celsius temperatures, about 92f. Pretty toasty for Pacific NW fleece wearing pilgrims 🥵. 

So after a breakfast of yogurt, orange juice and leftover slices of sausages, ham and bread, we hit the trail in the cool predawn air of the coastal waters. We were truly suffering pilgrims because we were walking without our morning cafe’ con leche 😉. 

The coastal littoral beach path merges with the Portuguese Coastal path in eastern Old Vigo. Vigo is a pretty big Camino city with a large port and big boat service industry. Big boats like small cruise ships of perhaps 300ft. We walked past many of these ships in dry dock for repair or construction work. We took a mid morning break nearby the cathedral in Vigo for lots of water, cafe’, and a pastry. The transit through Vigo took about two hours in all and was our first big city since leaving Porto. 

Recharged we continued the walk which had us doing a steep climbing route to join the “coastal “ route. The climb was strenuous and we stopped twice on the way up to rest a few minutes and drink some water and shed some clothes. When we finished the climb we then were on a relatively flat route similar to a narrow forest road and offering some shade. The shade was very much appreciated as we were sweating profusely. We’d gone through 2.5liters of water in 5 hours and then came to a village where villagers were filling jugs with water from an old fountain. They motioned to us to drink and assured us Aqua Potable. So we filled up our water bottles and drank one and refilled it just in case. 

About 45 minutes later after an equally steep descent to our morning climb we came to Redondela Spain and found our albergue for tonight, Albergue Parroquial Santiago Apostle. This is a new albergue run by nuns and offers excellent accommodation and a free CLOTHES WASHER!  After showers and laundry we stepped out at 3pm for our big meal of the day and our walking partners Ginny and Benny went to the grocery store to by something light for later and supplies for breakfast. 

Tomorrow it’s to Ponferrada which is about 20km or so. Again we plan to walk early as temperatures are predicted to be hot like today. The regional television news had a story about the heat and a number of pilgrims that required emergency services to respond. So we hydrate hydrate hydrate and sweat a lot and only occasionally need a WC break. 😅. 

Will try to post pictures later but the WiFi link is weak in this nicely renovated but thick old stone building. 

Ultreia!

Ultreia" (also "Ultreya" or "Ultrella") is a form of encouragement among pilgrims, and that would come to mean "Let's go further" or "Keep going".