Day 35 - Salceda to Monte del Gozo

Day 35 - Salceda to Monte del Gozo

Showers

Another miserable day weather-wise. Otherwise pretty good walk with a bit of hills. We knew we have lots of time with a shorter distance today so we are a bit more relaxed. Drizzle on and off for the entire morning and then it got heavier as we got close to the albergue. We were soaked. The rain gears got tested the first time and I don't think they would hold up in an absolute downpour.

We are here at the albergue about 5 km from Santiago de Compostela. The albergue has 500 beds. That tells you it isn't an original idea to take the short walk into town in the last day. Imagine all of us going into Santiago tomorrow morning, we might still have to fight the crowd yet. We could have gone all the way to Santiago today, with another hour and a bit. Fortunately we didn't because by 2 pm, it was absolutely pouring. Plus 6€ a bed here is much better than 12€ to 18€ in the middle of Santiago.

We are seeing a lot of new people although there are still some familiar faces. We saw groups of youngsters probably doing class trips and people who don't understand the pilgrim's menu system, a telltale sign. A couple of days ago, Winnie spotted a lot of pilgrims started in Sarria in the list of people staying at the albergue, so it is true. The number of people walking around us seems to be more, but it is definitely not a crowd. We will have to wait for tomorrow for that. 

The rain is very discouraging in terms of going out exploring. Winnie and Gigi found some food supply in the kitchen and they whipped up a hot lunch. Better than going out into the rain. Did go out in the evening when the threat of rain lessened but it was cold!  Found a restaurant on the main street that has decent food. I had octopus again.

Started this morning with 28 km to go