Day 4 - Baamonde to Paraños 24 and 25 km

Last night since we were in a service station somewhat beyond the town of Baamonde we had our meal in their restaurant, nothing very special, but quite eatable. But of course quite late for us. The restaurants generally do not open before 8:30 pm which is why nowadays I write my contributions to this blog before dinner - the first days I dropped off to sleep while writing!

After a light breakfast we got off at 8:30 h. A longish haul along the route nacional before we turned off on to a path into the woods and across an old bridge which I remembered from 12 years ago. Past the Capilla de Santo Alberte and the ruins of a very old house to where we split into two groups: with Clara, Max, Paulo, Nico and I followed at first the traditional camino which is beginning to get quite crowded, and then a recently established alternative to Parga whereas Andrea with Serge, James, Nicola and Leo went to follow the 'rota del agua' along the river Parga to the town Parga - a slightly longer walk - where Franzisca, Nicola’s sister was going to join us.  

Again a beautiful and varied walk, ours, through forests and meadows with very little walking along roads until we could see the river and heard the voices of the others. This set Paulo and Nico running the rest of the way to the riverside café where Franzisca was awaiting us. A lot of noise when the cousins were reunited after not having seen each other for a long time. Since there were steps from the terrace into the river someone had the idea to go for a swim - even more noise!

We did eventually leave and continued walking until it was time to picnic/lunch on the goodies Andrea had bought! Excellent picnic! Excellent rest for me. My foot which had been playing up again yesterday stayed quiet - great relief. However later we had a long stretch of road and it became quite painful again requiring another pause.

At about 6pm we finally reached our albergue/hostal which is giving everyone a real albergue experience. No private rooms, 6 to 8 people to a room in bunk beds, communal showers, WCs, etc. This is an old farm which produces cheeses.

They bake their own bread in a traditional oven - I had been wondering about those semicircular “outcrops” you saw on old farmhouses. In this one and I suppose in the others the oven was open inside the house thus heating this part of the house. They have what they call a zoo of domestic animals. And they run stages for schoolchildren about life on a farm - my grandchildren’s comment while installing themselves “This is like school trips”.

We very much sympathised with Noira, who is one of the socios, and her mother who helps out.