Day 1: Starts with a splash. El Niño Camino the rain in Spain… but I won’t complain.
Because I’ve said my decade of the rosary, just as Mum would do in the driveway at the start of our annual pilgrimage to Ireland.
And the predicted storms have stayed away which is just as well as we trek through the woods.
Jimmy the conkerer
The only threat from the skies is from the conkers and acorns being blown off the trees and round my head.
Our walk to the woods from Tui has been, in truth, seamless bar for a left turn (isn’t there always?).
Where a kind driver interrupts his journey.
To point us back in the right direction.
We could, of course, have trusted in our other senses.
With the skirl of the pipes a familiar sound to Scottish type people like us.
Galicians being, of course, fellow Gaels, and fond of a rendition of Amazing Grace.
For a token of appreciation for which you’ll also get a stamp for your Camino passport.
Food for thought
We picked up another earlier on, and randomly a banana.
And by now, and still early on, I have a front page filled.
From our first night billet, the local pharmacy, and the second stop, 18kms that way, in O Porriño.
We take shelter from the first droplets of rain in Tapas y Vinos to refuel.
And for my walking companion, Big Brother Ed, to shake his head in appreciation.
At two doorsteps of a beefy ham sandwich and two Americanos for under €12.
We are, unexpectedly, further along the way than we’d imagined… on the apron off Azur Hotel in O Porriño.
Candles in the wind and rain
I feel compelled to thank Him for keeping us dry and safe.
And say a prayer at the first church in town, it looks like there’s one on every corner.
And light a candle and pray for all the requests I’ve been given ahead of my 100 mile Camino Portugues to Santiago with CaminoWays.
The candle stand is clearly well thumbed and suggests a 20c donation.
I fluff my pockets and find a 10c but there’s no cutting corners in the House of God.
And the candle only comes on when I put in a 20c which puts the Church in profit.
And me with another sin to walk off en route to Santiago.
