14 August - Day 19 - Ribadeo to Lourenzá - 29kms

A great night sleep. Ear plugs and masks and working well. Up at 6:30 and out of the albergue within 20 minutes. 10min walk to an open cafe. Meanwhile, Ribadeo's youth are filtering out of the clubs and bars. They wish us Buen Camino as they pass. Cafe con leche and tortilla. Then on the road by 7:30am. Our longest day ahead…29kms. We are ready.

7km on road and we reach out first village. They have chocolate cake. We order coffee and buy bananas for later. The bar owner seems quite put out by the pilgrims keeping his business afloat.

Continue on, we are on dirt road surrounded by gum trees. It smells like home. The 12km section is a mixture of road, trail and a loooonngg climb gets us to our next rest stop.  

The cafe has great views of the valley and is the perfect spot for a weary pilgrim passing through. The owner is very every eger to help pilgims. There are hot empanades (kind of like a pasty), sandwiches, cold beer, and freshly baked chocolate cake. Not to mention a variety of Camino memorabilia.

Kim tells the owner "I love you and your cafe" she replies I love you too.

Final 9km is mostly trail through woods with one last climb. We pop out of the forest and we can see Lourenzá 1.6km down the hill. The 1-2km is always the hardest. You can see your destination, the afternoon sun is beating down on us, no shade, hot and sweaty, sore feet. 

We have booked a double room in a recently renovated pension. It also has several hostel dorm rooms. It is super clean, modern and well set up for pilgrims. Wash away the day in the shower and leave our washing for later as the restaurant is due to close soon.

Town is pint sized so takes 2 minutes to walk to the restaurant going the long way around the block. The bar is heaving and the restaurant is full but they tell us to wait. Kim finds a plastic chair outside and I lean on a wine barrel. 5 minute later we are called in. It’s got a/c. Nice and cool. Menu of the day. Kim orders pulpo on potato and steamed hake with stewed vegetables. I order fabada and lamb shanks. We both have a cornetto for dessert. 

You always get wine with a Menu of the day...not a glass, a whole bottle to share. Today Kim asked for white and I order red. We get a bottle of each. It's not great wine, but it is drinkable. Sometimes with a dash of lemonade as we have learned from the locals.

Stuffed (and possibly a little tipsy) we roll home. Nap. Do our laundry. They have washers and dryers so no hand washing today. Yay! Repack. Read. Blog. Bed 10pm.

Today's walk on Garmin