Day 10 - Convergence (Ferreira to Boente 27 km)
Today was truly the beginning of the end. The Camino Primitivo merged with the Camino Frances and now with less than 50 km to go, we can taste the finish line.
Breakfast at Albergue Ponte Ferreira matched last night's supper - plenty of delicious variety. The meals were the best I've experienced so far in Spain and the albergue owners Tom and Ria were wonderful. When you go on this Camino, stop here.
After breakfast, Dan and I departed in the fog but by this time, headlamps were not required. It turned out to be another beautiful day with warm temperatures and a not so challenging 27 km. We both felt very strong and the path is no longer peppered with steep ascents and descents. We cruised with ease.
Other than brief encounters in the first couple of hours, we saw nobody from our bubble. There were many new faces on the trail and we can only assume that they started on the Frances with many being the 100 km pilgrims who just joined a short while ago.
At Melide, the Primitivo joined the Frances and were were once again on the same path we took two years ago. It wasn't long before we recognized a few locations from our first Camino. We stopped at a familiar stream crossing to soak our feet in the very cold water and watched a plethora of pilgrims wander past. To date, other than my friend Kate who we walked with for two weeks on the Podiensis, I have seen no Canadians. The closest encounter was today with a Frenchman who was wearing a Home Hardware hat from St. Jacobs Ontario. Not much time left to find a fellow Canuck. At our albergue, we sat out front and watched the pilgrims pass by looking for anything that would identify their country of origin. There were a few Americans in the crowd but no red and white maple leafs in sight.
We did see Marine and Erlind walk by and called them in to join us for a drink before supper. It is always great to see them and we will try to meet up with them tomorrow as well as others from our bubble.
The path is extremely busy with strangers, unlike the previous 10 days. With the convergence of the paths, walking in solitude will be near impossible however we expected this and will continue to enjoy our journey. Two days left.
