Day 22: Melide to Arzua. Raspberry picking and the village of flowers.
Last time I walked 800km I didn’t once stop to pick fruit by the roadside. You’d think that in 31 days of walking I’d have at least picked fruit once. I didn’t even notice half the fruit and plants I now see around me. It’s as if my fruit sense has been switched on. The truth is, of course, that Cheeky has an amazing nose for fruit and an interest in all things horticultural. If she slows down I know there must be fruit in our vicinity. On this trip we have picked and eaten everything from apples to pears to a myriad assortment of plums to juicy cherries and, today’s delight, raspberries. There’s something sweeter about eating the fruit you’ve just plucked from bushes and trees around you. Without Cheeky I would have just bustled on by, vaguely aware, but mostly oblivious to, the fruit salad around me on the Camino.
Today we left the town of the Octopi heading for Arzua. Last time round I’d walked into Arzua in absolute agony as blisters on the soles of my feet and heel of my foot constantly tore open on the walk. I remember staggering into the town each step a point of agony. Today I felt fine, it’d been a shortish trip of 14 or 15 km’s and even Cheeky who grimaced on some stages walked into town with energy to spare. Nothing like the poor guy who walked ahead of us and winced with each step, clearly in pain but still moving ahead. Funny how the Camino works, it’s as if I was seeing myself two years ago.
Cheeky and I have been mixing our accommodation up. Last night in Melide it was a hotel today it’s an Albergue again. It’s nice to be amongst fellow peregrinos in an Albergue but, as always on the last stages from Sarria, it’s filled with overly large, overly loud Spanish groups walking for a few days. I’m sure it’ll be a noisy night but the upside if that is we’ll be awake early. That’s good because we have a longer walk tomorrow. Something Cheeky’s not really looking forward to but c’est la camino. In fact we now only have about 39km to go so we only have, after today, about two more nights on the Camino. We should reach Santiago by Saturday 
that’ll give us a couple of days to enjoy the town and be there for the party ad the town gies all out to Celebrate Santiago’s Day on the 25th.
– Posted from my phone
Location:Carretera de Santiago a Guntín,Arzúa,Spain
