I’d barely left the village of La Caridad this morning before I lost the trail. My head was down, I was daydreaming, and I missed an obvious marker for a left turn. I merrily walked straight onto a beautiful forest trail, thinking to myself how fabulous the trail was for the Camino. I didn’t see a trail marker for a while, but that didn’t worry me because I saw lots of footprints in some mud, much as I had seen many times over the last few weeks. I was a happy boy.
But then the trail narrowed and I found myself crawling over a couple of logs and walking painfully through thorny bushes that hung over the trail. Something was wrong. I consulted my guidebook and, sure enough, I had missed a turnabout a kilometer back. I retraced my steps and made the correction.
I think I would have been fine with that one error, but a dozen kilometers later in the village of Tol, facing a choice of two routes, and unwilling to pull my guidebook out of my pack in the pouring rain, I opted to follow the route called Camino. I felt sure the route was the normal route that would take me to Ribadeo, where I would meet up with my friends for coffee.
How wrong I was! I followed the path for more than a kilometer in the cold rain and nearly walked past a Camino kiosk. These kiosks usually describe things in the area and are written in Spanish. Given that it was raining, I was about to pass it by, when I suddenly felt compelled to go read it. The kiosk showed a map of various Camino routes and as I looked at them, I realized I was on the ancient trail heading to Vegadeo, which would have completely bypassed my destination of Ribadeo. My heart sunk. I had done it again. I had taken the wrong route.
My phone map, which was nearly impossible to manipulate in the rain with wet fingers, showed me there was no shortcut to my destination. I had to go back the way I came.
So, I’ve added four kilometers to my day and missed coffee with my friends. I took a chance that they would skip the albergue in Ribadeo because of the early hour and head to Vilela, another seven kilometers further on. And that’s where I found them.
It wasn’t all bad today. I ran into some pilgrims from Quebec and New Zealand who I had met the night before at a pilgrims’ dinner. They were great company for that last stretch to Vilela.
And I experienced some real Camino magic today. In Ribadeo, I went into a sports store to look for a pair of rubber tips for my hiking poles. Although I love to use the poles, I avoid doing so when walking through towns or when walking on asphalt with my friends because the clicking sound can be annoying. The young man in the store said that they don’t sell the rubber tips. But as I turned to go, he stopped me, pulled out a new pair of hiking poles, removed the rubber tips, and handed them to me. “Free,” he said, with a smile. What a great trail angel! Even when things are not going your way, there is still amazement around the corner.
Today, crossing the bridge over the Ria de Ribadeo, I stepped into Galicia, the final region on the route to Santiago. The route turns inland, so I bid adieu to the coast.
