Camino Frances 2024 Day 18 - Jun 22, 2024

Today was another short day, 15 km from Melide to Arzua. There were surprisingly some hills and I found them a welcome reminder of the earlier phases of the trip and a break from the flatness of the last few days. Who would have thought that hills were desirable? The landscape was more of greenery and rolling meadows and we walked through some nice communities that I intend to come back and explore. Another horse came over and said hello. There were clusters of walkers but not large throngs. I suspect some of the groups we saw two days ago do longer days and race to the finish. We met a Norwegian woman in her 70s who had started on May 23 and was moving quite fast. I had noticed a man with a pronouned limp yesterday in town who was also on the way today. He passed me and we did a high five. He has clearly had a stroke in the past. He was at least double our pace. In two unexpected places we found hippie vendors - down by a stream and on a deserted road. We also saw a home delivery of a large loaf of bread. On the way in to Arzua we passed a guy cooking paealla so we came back for some but we missed their lunch hours and need to come back at 7pm. Nice to see what Saturday life looks like on the way.