As much as the 4 star hotel above ground promised, the albergue below ground left a lot to be desired.

It turned out that the space we were occupying must have formerly been the hotel spa area, before being converted into a pilgrim albergue.

There was a general damp smell and all the floors were made of open slats, so we were very conscious that we couldn’t drop anything that might fall in between them, as it would be hard to retrieve.

The lighting was motion sensor operated and very harsh, and there were no light switches. Instead, there was only a dial which adjusted the volume of ambient background music in the room.

It took us a while to realise that the Italians beside us hadn’t actually been pumping out this constant pop music!

You also felt so bad if you went to the toilet during the night, because bright lights would come on automatically.

We both had a terrible night sleep. I woke every hour and it was incredibly hot and stuffy in the basement with no windows or fresh air available.

All the pilgrim bunkbeds have plastic mattresses and pillows, which you cover with thin papery disposable covers.

I guess that somehow the combination of this and the stuffy dampness wasn’t conducive to good rest.

Add to that, Hamish discovered a neat line of bedbug bites on his leg this morning…

We heard the Italians leave before 6:30am, but somehow we were very slow to get going.

However the hotel breakfast was just perfect, and we had a very relaxed and faffy start of the day, catching up on emails and watching the latest on the wildfires in the area. They are still ravaging acres of forest, which is affecting the neighbouring Camino Francès and parts of Portugal. Some of the wildfires are only about 30kms away.

We finally didn’t get moving until 10:30am, which almost felt like the afternoon on the pilgrim schedule, but of course we knew that this was going to be a short day of walking and that we had the restaurant niece’s albergue booked that evening, so there was no stress about a bed.

In many ways, it was the perfect day for walking… mostly on earth and dirt roads, rather than tarmac… warm temperatures by Scottish standards and sunny with plenty of clouds… and of course beautiful views.

Although the Camino signage of arrows and shells is fairly clear, we kept missing the path again today… it is so much harder to concentrate on the way marks when talking with another person.

We discovered some epic looking mushrooms. Bright orange with frilly white borders…huge and dramatic, and on googling, apparently edible. Chicken of the Woods, apparently delicious and meaty in texture. We were tempted to pick them because it sounded like these particular specimens were young and in their prime, but we decided it was not wise to take the risk at this point of the journey.

The niece’s Albergue da Ricardo in Campiello is beautiful and has everything you need… it is well designed, clean and uncluttered. It even has Miele washing and drying machines, a fully equipped kitchen and coffee machines.

As I sat writing my diary in the lovely courtyard, I heard the voice of Don, the American who we had met on the first night in Paladín. He was at the gate of the albergue and was showing around an Irishman called Mick.

They persuaded me to join them for a drink, so I woke Hamish from his nap and we went for pre-dinner drinks, then dinner for six, followed by post-dinner drinks.

Don and his two American friends, Jen and Chris, were walking their first Camino for Don‘s 60th birthday. A fine way to spend the evening before collapsing into bed.