On the Road Again!

Today headed out on my own as Sandra was still recovering! My intention was to take the scenic route out of Villafrank, however, I misjudged the darkness and rethought the plan!

The walk out of the town was very pretty, cobbled streets, old houses; in parts a little rundown,in others quaint. Had to search a couple of times for the yellow arrows but found the way. Walked over the Rio on a long bridge and then the path splits. So rather than taking the "high" route I followed a lone pilgrim on the"road" route. Walked beside the river along the edge of the roadway. The river was basically in a gorge way down there. Interestingly the Camino path was tarmac painted yellow. Sooo once I found the right direction, "I was following the yellow brick road", sort of! :-) The path was winding and the road signs showed cars tipping if they did not go slow.  Not to many walkers yet and not a cyclist for at least 30 minutes.

After about 5km I came to a little town called Pere, had caught up to a bunch of pilgrims and met Canada, Germany, Austria. These three had decided three days ago to travel together as all of them were injured and were visiting the medical clinics. Feet were their number one problem! Chatted for a bit, had the mandatory grande cafe leche and headed off! Not far out of the town I caught up with a group that included a lady from our dorm last night. She too had foot issues and was planning to stay in a hotel to rest today, however, everything was booked. So she sent her bag ahead and was wearing sandals heading to the next bed!

I walked with her a bit and then kicked it up a notch! Put my tunes on and found a good pace! I came to the turnoff to go to the town to meet Sandra and decided to keep going! It was only 9:15! :-) The path eventually turned off the roadway and we went through a few hamlets, not much happening in any of them! Old buildings and quiet streets! After a bit we rejoined the roadway and this part of the path still had the road on the right and the river on the left. The difference now was that the river was no longer in a gorge, it had fields with sheep and mountain goats on the opposite side. There was a fellow with a pack and two huge plastic bags and he was busy picking up bottles and cans, I spoke to him and then he climbed the fence, I guess to get more bottles! A huge dog maybe a mastiff cross came barrelling out of no where, barking its head off! The walkers, me included, stopped in our tracks and watched! The sheep and goats took off away from us making lots of noise and ringing their bells and the dog kept coming and now the guy starts yelling (have no idea what he was saying). It was a slow motion movie! The end result was the guy climbed the fence before the dog got him and the dog protected his herd! I wanted to clap! Everyone did their part! I walked away laughing!:-)

So tunes and a good pace!  Walked through two more small hamlets and then a long approach to Vega de.  Overtook a guy from England and a guy from Portugal an they cracked me up. The shorter dude whined "how much further?" and the English dude snaps "500 blinkin metres", of course I laughed and then we all did! Pretty funny!

Reached the town at 11:30ish, had my bed organized by 12! Shower, beer, explore in that order! :-) Found a pub and a COLD beer, sat at the bar and chatted to the owner. While I was there a young lady came in with a fish in a styrofoam box, freshly caught as it was still moving! The old guy (owner) paid her 10€ for it and it didn't look very big to me! Anyway, we started to talk about fish, then salmon, about "big" fish and the old guy said he catches big salmon in the river and pointed! His wife rolled her eyes and we had a good laugh! Found the grocery store, chores, siesta now dinner!

I decided to go back to to the same place for dinner, and got there about 5:45. There was another guy at the door with his phone, I asked about food and after a minute this guy comes over has me speak my question into his phone, then he hands the phone to the oldnguy, he reads it, I get wine, a table and dinner! Sweet!
Had dinner, chattedmto amcouple from New Zealand,  a fellownfrom Germany and some women from Toronto!

Good day!