Lestedo to Lobereiro (Oct 7)

 It was such a pleasure to stay at the Rectoral de Lestode and we made a point of sleeping in after the previous day's long walk. We woke to a very nice breakdast (more than just toast and coffee, we even had fruits, spanish sausages and Santiago cakes).

At Lestedo we were about 73km from Santiago. It was time to plan the walk into the ultimate destination. The young and enthusiastic could do it in 2 days but given what we were capable of doing and wanting a 10 km half-day leisurely walk into Santiago on the final day, we settled on a 5 day final journey instead.

A few kilometres from Lestedo we reached at the fringe of Palas de Rei where we had a long stop to use at the facilities of the local municipal albergue, including their internet and cafe. (Lestedo was so small that it had no internet connections).  It was interesting that many alberques had very good facilities that included facilities for washings and the internet, but not more personal space which we preferred.

12th century church at San Xulian.

Though we set ourselves just 14km day it was tiring because of the ups and downs over numerous small streams and rivers and the hot and humid conditions of the wooded terrain. We were relieved when we finally arrived at the the casa rurale we booked at Lobreiro, a renovated country house run by a kindly woman and her family. She quickly told us that it being sunday there would be no cooked meals anywhere in the small hamlet. However the entreprising lady also ran a small cafe at tbe back of the building in a semi temporary shed that served a good jamon boccadillo.