Today we walked about 21km from Abadín to Villalba. It was mostly a flat walk as we’d climbed for most of yesterday. The issue was that it was wet for most of the walk.
It had rained quite heavily during the night as we slept, and the rain was still lingering when we woke. As we walked out of the hotel, it was sodden underfoot, and the clouds were relatively low as we were at high altitudes.
The wet weather gear came out pretty soon after we’d left the hotel as the rain set in again. My jacket, which is 15-plus years old, was beginning to show its age and wasn’t great at keeping all the moisture out. It does the job okay but not great. I should’ve packed my waterproof pants in my daypack as that would’ve kept the water out of my shoes which got sodden fairly quickly. I’ve stuffed the boots with paper towel for the night and will wear the pants as I leave tomorrow. The weather forecast isn’t looking great for tomorrow, either.
Because the terrain was flat primarily today, the surroundings were farmland. The paths were tracks for farm machinery to get in and out of paddocks and crops—an easy walk.
As we’re approaching Santiago, we seem to be crossing paths with several other pilgrims. We keep running into a couple of guys from Sweden, a woman and man from Spain and another from Germany. I suspect we’ll all be arriving in Santiago at the same time.
It wasn’t gloom and doom all day with rain. It stopped for a brief period during the day, and we occasionally got a glimpse of the blue sky. We did dry out from the morning showers, and I was hoping that we could make it into Villalba dry, but the rain started again as we headed into town.
We stumbled upon a small town and stopped at a bar for coffee and beer. It was good to get out of the bad weather and into the warm for a while.
So having dried out from the morning rain, we encounter more as we enter Villalba. It would have been good to arrive at the hotel relatively dry, but no, that would be too much to ask. Anyway, we arrived in the rain with wet jackets and shoes. As soon as we checked in, I went to the supermarket to buy some food to snack on and some paper towelling to stuff in the shoes so they dry out overnight.
Overall an okay walk today with a few rays of sunshine coming through the clouds. The forecast for tomorrow isn’t looking good with more rain. I think this will be how it is until we reach Santiago. We’ve had good weather thus far, so a bit of rain can’t hurt.
That’s it for today. For a map of today’s walk, you’ll find it below.
Thanks for reading, and Buen Camino! 😍