Day 3: And we’ll get there, it’s the day after the Spain game and this is our goaaaaal… our Camino Portugues Arcade Game.
The biblical deluge did arrive last night and gracias Dios it was when we were safely off the Way.
And in our billet at Hotel Azul in O Porriño in Spanish Galicia.
But anxious about our next leg, the 23km undulating and longest stretch yet, to hilltop Arcade.
A sports hack half my career and a football fan all my life I didn’t expect.
To be trudging through the puddles to find a bar for the game.
Or giving up on the mission to watch Lamine Yamal and the world champs beat Croatia 4-1.
Only there may have been an insight on how the locals view the national team in this graffito on the wall.
Now our own wee team Scotland, the last to beat Spain a whole two years ago, have found it uphill ever since.
Like today’s 12km climb on my Camino Ways odyssey.
Thankfully Hotel Azul have served us, that’s me and Big Brother Ed, the breakfast of champions.
You see, the beauty, of course, in a longer leg on the Camino is more time to take in the beauty.
Although I could certainly do with longer legs for those steep inclines.
And the bigger distance affords more chance to spend time with fellow peregrinos.
Like American brother and sister Mark and Mary who bookend this stretch down from our farmhouse billet As Chivas
With Mark offering to adopt the name Joseph temporarily for this money shot coastal picture over the valley.
Mark billing me as Jesus on account of my ‘Jesus is my Home Boy’ T-shirt.
The thing is though as a James Joseph I offer to double job.
It’s a family affair
I am walking 11 years after my first Camino.
This time with my big brother, the third of the Three Wise Men, the other brother is back in England.
Caminos have always been familial affairs and Ed and I break bread with American dad and lad Jim and Jamie… well, it is St James’s Way.
Sheltering from the morning’s delayed showers in a path side cafe.
Where naturally we get another stamp for our Camino passports which will qualify us for a certificate.
When we get to the end of our 100-mile trek to Santiago di Compostella.
Peregrinos, or pilgrims, will be lucky if their walk is in gentle breeze as opposed to blistering sun or pelting rain.
Carmen and the Hunchback of Rotterdam
God is watering his garden today but we are prepared with foldaway waterproofs.
While Dutch Nonda is covered too with a poncho covering both her and her rucksack.
The Hunchback of Rotterdam Filipino Carmen calls her… she’ll cut herself one of these days, she’s so sharp.
And despite rolling her ankle on an early leg Carmen is off now at a fair lick.
We’ll see her again, God willing, like we have Mark and Mary.
That’s the Camino for you.
MEET YOU ON THE ROAD