May 6

Triacastela to Barbadelo 28 km. Galicia is renowned for its green beauty, but walkers the green exacts a price–it rains often, as it did all day today. Not a hard rain, but a good soaking one that left me damp. All that water has to go somewhere, and the streams were all brimming. Little freshets rush down troughs cut in the green grass, and the rivers have numerous falls which on closer inspection are usually revealed as old dams which have become wild enough to pass for falls. Today’s path wound through small valleys and coves, switching often between narrow twisting paved roads (single lane) and muddy farm tracks. Though still feeling under the weather, it was a fine walk, ending at an Albergue in a tiny village. The road is now heavily populated by short-timers who can get their Camino merit badge if they go 100 km–if they start at Sarria, a large town I crossed today.