Stage 3 – Hospital de Bruma to Sigüeiro, 24.8 kms

Fourth day of walking, fourth day of rain. Today’s still weepy skies alternated between drizzle and a light sprinkle. It wasn’t too bad, except…

The walk was preceded by one of my worst nights of sleep ever in an albergue, and I’ve slept communally on the Camino 80 or 90 nights over all my journeys. First, the evening was damp and cool. I travel with only a sleeping bag liner and the municipal albergue in Bruma didn’t have blankets. It was just cold enough for me to not be comfortable. Secondly, 4 people chose to ignore the 10:00 pm curfew, straggling in around 11:00. Two of the four chose to stay up late and socialize loudly until after 1:00 am. Thirdly, my bed (one of the last two) was next to the sliding door that separated the shared bunk room and the common area. I don’t know how to spell the sound of the door sliding on its track (a combination of scrunching and squeaking) but every time one of my fellow 18 pilgrims went to the bathroom in the night, the door slid open and closed right beside my head. The process repeated when the pilgrim returned. The math:

4 slides per trip x 18 pilgrims = 72 slides of the door, minimally (and I repeat, near my head).

Further, assuming 8 hours of lights out between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am, that was, on average, 9 slides per hour (72 slides divided by 8 hours). Calculating my suffering didn’t help…

Fourthly, I developed a slight tickle in my throat and started coughing in the night. I worried about catching a cold, which almost always leads to some respiratory affliction.

I’ve come to expect a few bad nights in albergues and don’t mind one, the next night is almost always a good night’s sleep. And fortunately, on today’s walk the bars were perfectly spaced for First, Second, and Third Breakfast.

Later in the morning, the rain stopped, and a light fog settled on the countryside. When it’s raining, you don’t fully experience the views – your peripheral vision is shrouded by the hood of the rain jacket and your eyes are focused on your feet and the looming puddles. It was sure nice to be able to see the beautiful Galician scenery this morning.

At noon, the sun poked through the clouds, and we saw blue skies for the first time since those few glimpses on Day 1. We strolled into Sigüeiro around 1:00 pm and went straight to the hostal. We spent the remainder of the day alternately resting and eating and napping until it was time for official lights out. We had to catch up on some sleep.