Day 7: Torres del Rio to Lograño

Woke up on the floor of the church, after a surprisingly comfortable sleep. A small miracle had taken place overnight and Sally´s blister had actually completely disappeared - no jokes. We are thinking of contacting the Vatican.

John and Stephen left ahead of Sally, Pat and Lynda to try and run for the bus back to Torres del Rio. However, they missed it by 30 seconds so we ended up getting two taxis back to where we had stopped the night before. Dad had quite severe panic attack because he had lost his hat (turned out later that he had left it in Lograño) but the day seemed to be starting off badly. And then, the rain started. Although all the pilgrims were moving much faster, Sally was still not gaining much ground over the slippy, muddy hills. Rousing songs were brought in to use again. Stopped in Vianna for coffee to keep our spirits up, where the Buckleys caught up with Stephen and Pat who were continuing to walk very speedily. Walked on to Lograño where we then checked into the refugio and decided to have a rest day for the rest of the day. However, the dorms were set out like something out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. We were staying in the attic/ eaves where the beams were so low that everyone kept on whacking their head, and there were about 30 beds set out side by side, all in a row.

Nothing much to report for the rest of the day - Lynda and Pat got involved in some heated laundry politics with an angry Spanish woman but all was well in the end, apart from the fact that we then discovered that the dryer didn´t work so we all had to leave with wet washing.

Undettered, all pilgrims went to mass to offer thanks for Sally´s miracle (and also to pray for the strength to keep going!) Extremely long mass in Spanish but enormous gold altar-piece kept Stephen pondering the mysteries of St. James.

Lock-in at the refugio was at 9.30 so it was straight back for something to eat and then an early night.