Day 4 Cea to Lalin
After a quick breakfast we were out by 8AM. It had rained the night before we had blue sky with a few clouds.
A different trail market
By 10:30 we needed refueling. We found a small family restaurant and after some quick discussion between the husband and wife (which we took to be about whether it was too late for breakfast or not) they served us a full breakfast of bread, ham, eggs, fruit and coffee, and were genuinely happy to do so.
In Pinor, this was a great place to stop for breakfast Probably good for lunch, beer etc.
Breakfast in Pinor
El jefe de O’Refugio y su esposa
The rest of the day was walking on country roads and paths. The foliage was forested and sometimes pastoral, but much of the going was muddy from the rain. Sometimes there were stones in the mud to walk on. A number of times we stepped off the trail on to a parallel path through the foliage obviously created by others that didn’t like walking in the mud either. But these mud holes slowed us down and were rough going.
In a heavily forested area, a tree had fallen across the trail. We followed the beaten down bushes and grass taken by others but a mile later, as we approached a few houses with no one home we were hopelessly lost.
As we tried to figure out which way to go a German girl came along with better maps that ours (but she seemed to be as lost as we were). There wasn’t any cell service in this area so our map service was useless.
We just started following paths heading in what appeared to be the correct direction. The German girl would have none of it. She stayed with us for a few hundred yards then headed back. We eventually found a group walking on the same country road headed in what we thought was the correct direction. We arrived at Castro Dozon in mid afternoon. There was only a few stores, one small restaurant filled with other walkers, and an aubergue.
My map route says the route to Castro Dozon was 14.5 km. But my gps said we had walked 19.4 km. I don’t think the extra 5km was because we got lost.
We grabbed a quick bite at the bar in Castro Dozon then headed off another 5Km to Lalin.
The hotel we stayed at in Lalin was just spartan room with a shower and toilet. There were no other facilities (like a kitchen or restaurant) or full time attendant. The Camino doesn’t actually go into Lalin just passes near the town. After checking in, we grabbed a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant and tumbled into bed exhausted.