Caldas de Reis to Padron 

After 24 kilometres of walking in the rain today we have arrived at a beautiful place to stay called Casa de Meixada. It is a rural Casa near Padron  and only 17 kilometres from Santiago. So our final destination is very near now and tomorrow’s walk into Santiago will be exciting!

Today I took very few photos because of rain for most of our walk. Stopping in a market near Padron we enjoyed tasting some local Galician cheese and  wholesome corn bread. Of course we had to taste the special dish of Padron, pimientos de Padron. Not too peppery and perfect to taste if ripe and not over grilled.

Walking along the Camino track today needed extra focus because of all the puddles and mud and the difficulty of finding the way marking arrows in the rain. Like our Camino of two years ago, I began to think about why the Camino can be seen as a metaphor for our life’s journey. Here are just a few comparisons

• Each walk along the Camino will involve a degree of surprise, difficulty, perhaps a degree of pain and almost certainly some joy.
• Good preparation and organisation can help avert disaster but sometimes events such as torrential rain are out of our control.
• Today we were not so good at following the arrows. Getting lost and getting sidetracked can be daily happenings. We need to work at keeping our eyes open
• In the Camino we can sometimes see a way forward to our destination, perhaps a shortcut which ends up being a long haul. Sometimes the arrows take you backwards or sideways to avoid hazards like major highways – we need to look out for signs that may take you in an unexpected direction.

Today’s joy on our walk was arriving at our beautiful accommodation Casa de Meixida after a monotonous walk.

It was a restful place to have an enjoyable meal.