Day 17, May 12, Mercadoiro to Ligonde

Day 17, Thursday, May 12, Mercadoiro (mile 425.7) to Ligonde (mile 439.3). Walked 13.6 miles. 

Today was mostly a rainy day but luckily no really heavy downpours. 

At our first very crowded rest stop we again ran into David and Jacques, who made room for us at their table. They shared the sad side of their relationship -- that they have been rejected by David's three children. River decided to add those children to her walking Camino prayer. David first walked the Camino 17 years ago, after his wife died, in memory of their having followed the Camino together by car a few years earlier. Photo 1 shows Chris and David. 

We kept seeing farms of what appeared to be Eucalyptus trees (photo 2 and 3).  River was very curious what they were raised for that might be marketable. 

Just before we arrived at our albergue our herd of human pilgrims paused and then followed another herd of cow pilgrims. (Photo 4). 

We had planned all along to end today's walk at Ligonde at the first alburgue we came too. But we were a little chagrined to arrive in a very small and somewhat strange alburgue where the smiling friendly volunteers in their orange vests seemed to outnumber the pilgrims. We saw only 6 beds all less than a foot apart the other four occupied by German young men in their early 20s (if that). There seemed to be a spiritual agenda for both the afternoon and the communal evening meal that made us uncomfortable (we were expected to share spiritual reflections after dinner).  Luckily we were once again able to extricate ourselves from a poor initial decision and to make our way to the other albergue. 

The young woman who runs this albergue had been extraordinarily welcoming and helpful including giving us a ride to the nearby bar when Chris' sore foot (which of course we are not going to mention) made walking there uncomfortable.