Tuesday September 26th 2023 Melide - Salceda

Before we get to today's tour, an addendum, Melide is a stronghold of pulpo (cooked octopus with oil, salt and pepper - not squid!). Klaus and Lars were so daring and ordered a portion each, they survived it well. I stuck to the pimientos. But for today's tour, it would be time for the daily kilometers to be reduced, but when you look at the upcoming stage, things look different. From Melide we quickly left the city and we could see hordes of pilgrims from afar. This is because the Camino Primitivo and the Camino Frances meet here. After about 1 km of hiking, there was an alternative for about 2 km, a so-called Camino Complementario (supplementary route), which we immediately took because almost everyone else continued on the normal route. This was worth it, the emerging sunshine with the fog and the enchanted trees provided great opportunities for pictures. Afterwards we continued at a leisurely pace along mostly shady paths and approached our destination for today, the Alberque in Salceda. In the end it was 25.7 km again, 500m up and 600m down. Another note about many of the pilgrims we see here. They travel on the Camino with light luggage, sometimes no luggage at all, and send their suitcases and bags ahead by messenger or taxi.