29th May 2024 Ligonde to Melide

After a great night it was time to get organised for the day. As there were no places nearby for food, we just headed along the track until we came to the restaurant about 800m away and stopped there.  It was quite cold but inside was very pleasant and we could see the cats out the window sitting in the sun and playing so it was a nice way to start the day.

Our usual toast with jam, fresh orange juice and coffee was consumed and when I went up to the counter to pay I noticed some croissants in the small container and couldn’t really see that it was actually a small oven.  I bought one for the road and as she handed it to me I could feel the warmth through the alfoil so we ended up eating it straight away!  I let her know that it was delicious, and she said she had made them and beamed when I told her they were the best we have had the whole Camino – then we bought another for the trip!

We found some gums shortly afterwards and promptly broke off a few shoots and put them into the front of our packs so we could have the smell of home while we walked.  Such a delicious smell.

On through Palas de Rei where it was time for a coffee stop and on again.  Palas de Rei is not a very pretty town but seems to be quite busy and is another town, as we have seen right from the beginning, that is doing a lot of renovation and building works in anticipation of the wave of Camino tourism to come.  It apparently has become very popular with Korean and Australian pilgrims especially as the locals have mentioned them particularly.

More forest walking and beautiful vistas until we came to the town of Casanova where we stopped at Parada Taverna for lunch.  This was the best stop so far – Steve’s bocadillo was toasted on the soft side so was warm and they used olive oil on the inside.  So many places just put the jamon between the bread with nothing at all and we heard that the price of olive oil is especially high at the moment as there has been a drought and the yield has dropped significantly.  Olive oil bottles are no longer being put onto the tables either so it was especially nice to get a delicious roll.  My salad was exquisite and even had apples, walnuts and sultanas in addition to the usual components of lettuce, tomato, onion, olives and tuna.  I didn’t want it to end!

We got to the 59.995km to go sign and it was another reality check that our time is nearly gone.  While part of us wants to just continue walking we know there are other things to do and we are looking forward to them too.

Further down the path in front of us we could see movement and couldn’t believe there were 2 green lizards about 35-40cm in length fighting.  They remained deadlocked and didn’t care that we were watching them.  There are a lot of smaller green lizards around as they have been crossing our path or basking in the sun, so we assumed these two bigger ones were males fighting for mating rights.  They twisted and turned with one appearing to have an advantage but that switched quickly and eventually we needed to continue walking and that disturbed them enough to stop fighting.  What an experience!

On and into Melide where we ran into Ron who was coming down the street to check out where we were going to have dinner.  We laughed as this is now a common thing and we have enjoyed our catchups immensely.  Our accommodation was good and we settled in, did our washing and then headed back to the restaurant where we had a great time and met Tom, an American walking with his twenty-something year old son, Will.  Guy and Michelle were also there so we had another great night.