Our third morning dawned with more rain with some snow and hail thrown in for good measure,nothing else to do but wait it out while drying what wasn't dry from the night before and drinking more, tea for me and coffee for Rosiewhile breakfasting on last night's leftovers, I was feeling quite Dutch the amount of cheese and ham we were eating.
given time to reflect on the night before I can fully recommend Pontedeuma as a place to visit-great spot very social people and a laid back nightlife that would have graced a more so called sophisticated larger town.
As a retired publican the one thing I know about is bars and what makes a good one, its taken years of extensive research but anyone wanting a short cut just spend some time in Pontedeuma. For anyone just wanting the Internet cafe its in a little square just to the right of the villa real.
As we had been told some of the water meadows were
flooded and due to the late start we caught the 10-50am
bus to mino cutting 10k off the days walk. as the bus climbed the very steep very long hill out of town we knew the right decision had been made.
Mino looks a nice town and is also by a river, the auberge is right on the front and deserves a visit, if we were to do the walk again we would definitely take longer in order to see more of the area.
the plan for the day was to stay dry rely more on our eyes and less on the guide which we managed to do with great success and a little help from a friend.
Prior to Meryl streep and "mamma mia" ( she's watched it 5 times since Christmas and cries every time) Rosie's favorite Hollywood star was Judy garland and her favorite film the "Wizard of Oz" so every time the showers started this wicked witch of the west would run for shelter screaming
"I'm melting I'm melting" this we had to do quite a lot
on one occasion while huddled under a large bush we were hailed from the house opposite and invited in to shelter,our saint was a young woman named Albie who made us coffee while we dripped over her kitchen floor,she spoke very good English and made me smile with the warmth of her hospitality which was not diminished even when her father turned up to find strangers in his house. what a nice family.
a little later taking advantage of a burst of sunshine we lunched on bread and cheese and the remains of the wine from the night before -Bliss.
ever constant on our walk apart from the showers were trees 
and barking dogs, in sunnier times the smell of eucalyptus must be glorious. mostly the dogs were either chained up or behind gates and high walls only once were we in fear of bites when a pack of 5 loose dog came for us as we passed their abode waving our sticks about we managed to evade them till we passed some invisible territorial line at which point they stopped the attack and went quietly back home. leaving us quite shaken. 
just round the corner from this farmhouse was a high bank with a line of trees that looked with a light breeze would cause
us far more harm than the dogs ever would.
by now we were in a grove and enjoying the day and the views from high above Betanzos,from outside a beautifully positioned church we looked down the road still to be walked
with a spring in our step we descended and made our way into town held up for a while by a huge 
building site that we had to detour round we crossed the bridge and entered the old town through an arch, a triumphal end to a good day and dry to boot.
the tourist office was shut so we called at the library to ask for directions to the chocolatier apartments our choice of accommodation for the night,the women there not only took charge and personally escorted us but promised to stamp our credencial later.
It was just as well we managed to stay dry as the room was not that well heated,
having stocked up with more ham cheese sausage and wine we went for a stroll round the old town 
but with thoughts of the long day to come we couldn't explore as much as we would have liked and returned to our cold rooms too soon.
this was the last day I would use my hiking boots the prawn toe was not healing as quickly as it should due to constant rubbing and I would have a disturbed nights sleep due to the painful throbbing.
tomorrow 29k to Bruma
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