We saw Sandy off home to the Alsace and although we met many people on the Camino and became friends with some, it’s great to have a good friend along; he was fit, funny and full of adventure. We had breakfast with two lovely American women who were seasoned hikers but were also walking for spiritual reasons. We swapped photo shots along the way when one of them told me of five friends with Parkinsons whom we chatted a little about. She will give them my blog address and they may be in touch and we might catch up again with them in Santiago. Leaving town in the light was hard to get used to, and having clouds was a new experience as we climbed up under the rain forest branches curving over us to tantalise the little stream that would jump up to greet its shiny bright green leaves, the uneven path greeting us with yet another walking challenge. The long path down the other side was just as rough but a gentler slope, and with a branched archway covering us in case the sun broke the clouds and pierced the fog Passing animals in sets of two had us thinking of ‘the Ark’, but looking at the sky we knew this was not possible today so we put it down to coincidence. We crossed what probably was not an ancient bridge (a few slats of wood) to enter what is an ancient forest. The trees were full of gnarled faces which slowed us right down as we looked into their ancient eyes, As we emerged from this state of wonder an American from Seattle joined us saying (among many things) that he was a Neanderthal with technology, how apt that he had just been in this ancient forest. After chats about our passions, his was stone carving, the hardest thing being not to cut off too much stone. I thought that an advantage with technology is that you can usually rectify mistakes. We settled in to our farmhouse as the rain poured down, the weather of unpredictable Galicia …
Into the rainforest 
Up the rocky road 
Through the ancient forest 
Escort to school 
An ancient tree 
A Venetian canal in Spain 
