Day 6 (21st September) OS Charcots - Ribadiso

This day was a day of reflection, churches and Ocho Rios
CAFOD questions this day
When was the last time you spoke out against something you believe to be wrong?
How could you encourage others to do the same?

Again, I set off much later than the rest, although on this occasion we were all later than usual. After taking breakfast at the resturant opposite I passed down the path to Palas de Rei on my loansome, it being a misty dismal start to the day, I was thinking only of family and how I missed them. The sights seemed to filter from my mind/memory except for the bleakness shown in this first picture. I remember getting to the end of the small town of Palas de Rei before I snapped out of my day dream and saw a chap walking - as if he was Jesus carrying his cross with the weight of all of our sins on his shoulders. I couldn't help my self making the effort to engage this man in conversation. His name was Frank and I discovered that he had traveled approximately 2000km from Zuric (Switzerland) to this point, and that his legs took a little while to get back into the swing of walking each morning. Was I impressed by his commitment! He told me that his pilgrimage to Santiago would be 2048 km - a number that I know well from maths/electronics being 2^{^11}. Frank went on to say that he planned to finish his pilgrimage at Finisterre where he would met with his wife and throw his walking boots in to the ocean... I walked on past frank and arrived at the Monumeno a los Peregrinos - which seemed a fitting view for Frank who followed me.

I soon met up with Isabella, a French speaking lady from Mauritius that I first met in Ruitelan, who introduced me to Maria her friend from Central America. I joked that they must visit the next church called Santa Maria and left them so I could press ahead to catch up with the team. A little while along the way I entered St Maria XIII church at Leboreiro. When I entered it was extremely peaceful and I stopped to sample the peace. My mind turned to my friends Ross & Ginny and the death of Ginny's mother the week before - I tarried a while longer and said the rosary there. About a 45mins later I was on my way again, passing all those people I'd passed in the morning, but still well behind the rest of the CAFOD group it wasn't until I was closing on Boente did I feel I was catch the team; they had made really good progress (not so many ups and downs I suspect). I caught the group up just before Castaneda and walked on with Nick towards Ribadiso where the last of the eight rivers we crossed that day. We arrived within a few minutes of each other and booked into the Albergue Los Caminantes which was one of the nicest we all stayed in together.
We had our evening meal together which was most enjoyable. Strangely the CAFOD question of the day was raised by Martin who said he wanted my opinion on whether I would have spoken out about someone who he'd observed during the day. This sparked a discussion which we all had views and it centered around respect and love.

The final photo of the day was taken especially for Christine's grandchildren Finlay and Amelia... Christine contemplated doing the last two stages of the walk over three days as she had no need to make Santiago by Friday and was there until the Wednesday. I said that whilst Friday was easy for me I'd happily consider doing it as three days too as I'd have the Saturday and Sunday to get to the Pilgrim masses and the certificate. We pondered on this awhile but left it unresolved.