Ponferrada

Anne and I set out separately again today. By the time I left about 30 minutes before sunrise almost everyone from Acebo had left and I had the Camino to myself---a rare thing these days. I didn't see another pilgrim for an hour and then only because he was sitting by the side of the road.he was Dietrich,a Belgian who has been living for a couple of years volunteering his labour on farms in return for his keep. We walked together for a while and then he asked me what I was doing at his age(36). I told him I was thinking about getting married and changing careers, both of which I did in the following 2 years. Nothing too profound but we talked for some time before I offered to shout him breakfast--and the first bar we came to was offering bacon and eggs and was doing a roaring trade with the Aussies,Pommies, Yanks and Irish. He later told me our conversation had helped give focus to his Camino as he said he needed to decide whether to marry his girlfriend.only 8 km to go then and I had caught up to Anne at the bar. My energy had been good till then but must have put it down briefly at the bar and someone must have nicked off with it because when I went looking for it, it was gone. Stopped for a rest by the side of the road and had an orange and some chocolate and about 40 minutes later found a bar in a small village and had a coffee and more chocolate and then we ran into a couple of pilgrims we knew (Dietrich and Suzanne) and they distracted me until we got to our Hostal. So have now offloaded half my pack to make room for a bigger supply of chocolate to get me through tomorrow.Anne has fully recovered and is only helping me eat the chocolate so I don't feel guilty eating it all on my own.