Today’s a quasi rest day for us – a short walk of only ten or so kilometres.

What luxury – a lie in until 6:30 am, a relaxed pack up (somehow I still managed to leave a pair of tights behind!) and we started walking at 8:00 am. Bonus treat – no need for torches.

Sunrise over Torres del Rio

With such a late start we were the last to leave the albergue. That’s life on The Camino – early starts, early dinners, and early nights.

Vintage has started. We saw several gangs of workers picking the grapes by hand. The vines are old and planted too closely for mechanised picking.

Harvest time

The going was mostly easy. We both managed this steep descent easily enough.

Check out the graffiti on the sign

Concentration and small steps is what it takes, we told each other. And then, when the worst of it was behind us, there John was, after a long slow glide, down on one knee.

Luckily, no major damage, a couple of scrapes, a bit of blood, but not so much as to leave drips along the way. Seriously, I’d noticed splatters all along the path earlier! How anyone had continued walking when they were dripping so much blood amazed me.

As for John, a couple of band aids and he was right. Chocolate helped, too.

The approach to Viana

We arrived in Viana in good time, before lunch, and even managed to get our voting papers for New Zealand’s general election downloaded, suitably checked off, and uploaded again. Job done!

We’ve found a quiet cafe operated by a Canadian couple, appropriately titled Pilgrims’ Oasis, and are enjoying our third tea!

Tomorrow, it’ll be back to our normal early starts.  We’ve got 24 ks to cover off until we get to Navarrete, our next stop.