The one with the lost phone, the biggest magnolia bush in Europe and a swim in the sea.
Location: Ferrol to Neda
Miles: 14 miles
Health: All good.
Weather: Lovely sunny day, approx 20 degrees.
HIGHLIGHTS:-
7.40 am – Breakfast was superb! A cold buffet was followed by a hot-cooked breakfast for those who wanted it. I’m stuffed! This hotel has been perfect, I hope the new hotel in Neda does not disappoint.
8.15 am – Walker briefing is given and we are off! Watches set. If it’s not on Strava then it never happened… right? What’s that noise? Julie replies “It’s the Ferrol peacock!” What a lovely way to start our Camino.
8.10 am – We went to the pilgrim office for our first official stamp and took the obligatory 1st group photo. I was disappointed that the sign for Ferrol was blocked by building work, but it didn’t dampen our spirits. The first Camino arrows are next to the Pilgrim office… it’s this way….
10.48 am – After walking through the large naval town of Ferrol we find ourselves in the countryside. We stumble upon a small holding where tiny piglets are running around the field. I then hear an almighty noise and we witness baby donkeys crying out (they are loud!). A big black pig is lying on the ground and it looks dead. I stare at its torso trying to see if it’s breathing but there is no movement at all. As the others catch me up I say “I think it’s dead”. As I said that it moved its head!! Panic over!
11.55 am – The trail weaves around an old water/tide mill which is very pretty. We then spend too much time in a subway with the most amazing wall art. As we continue walking we see a familiar face heading to the group in the wrong direction, it’s Sam? “I’ve lost my phone “ she explains. “It must have fallen out of my pocket when I sat on the wall about a mile ago”. Oh no. Kelly asked her if she had managed to call the number, and she hadn’t thought of doing that. Sam dived into her pocket for her work phone and put the phone to her ear. “Ola” we hear and she’s talking and now running off in the opposite direction to where we have just walked. We guess that someone has picked up her phone and pray that she will be reunited with her phone soon.
11.55 am – The Camino Ingles has countdown milestones and starts at 113,000 km. it was lovely to see the 100,000 km milestone, or is it a Km Stone? Photo taken.
We keep seeing these fabulous trees with bright red flowers. Julie S says “I love those bottle brush trees”. When you go up close you can see that the flowers look like bottle brushes. Everyone’s phones go “ping” and there is a message in our WhatsApp group… Sam has been reunited with her phone. Phew!
12.11 pm – Just before the village we take photos of the biggest magnolia tree in Galacia. This is huge and I can imagine how beautiful it would be in full bloom.
12.30 pm – We are hungry now and my stomach needs substance. We stopped at a cafe (limited options in the village) they didn’t sell anything savoury, so I had a pastry and cafe con leche. Note for the future. Buy lunch at Lidls with my next group!Sam catches us up. She joins us for a coffee and then we are off again.
By 2 pm we have walked down a windy road to the beach. We are stopping at a small hotel and it’s just perfect. There are only 8 rooms in the hotel and we have five of them. We have our own beach and even a little old chapel next door. It’s secluded and perfect. I’m in my hotel room with my laptop catching up on work stuff and the windows are open. I’m distracted by squeals of laughter and familiar voices coming from outside. I look through the window out to the beach area below where most of our group are either paddling in the sea or have stripped down to their underwear and gone for a swim. I close my computer and make my way to the group to join in the fun. Seeing my friends having such a great time, splashing around in the sea (apparently it felt warm once you were in… er right!) 
made me realise how much I love my job.!The pool and restaurant are not open until for a few weeks yet so we had to either walk up the hill for 10 minutes or go to the restaurant in town. Or we order via Uber Eats. The food arrived at 9.10 pm and we were starving. There was a problem with the order as four meals were not delivered, but we all shared the food that was delivered and it then felt like a real Camino. Note to self: book a table at the restaurant next time!
We played spoons and Dobble, then said our goodbyes for the night.
It’s been a great first day of walking. Tomorrow the weather is looking hot and we have 22 miles to do! I hope people sleep well.Night night.