All Roads Lead to...

La Caridad to Ribadeo(16 km) Okay, so today was definitely strange. We walked for about 16 km and made it about 4.2 km from where we were. Yeah, it was not cool. We walked about 4km without a problem and we came upon an arrow that told us to go left. We followed the way markings like usually and then came upon a split in the path that wasn't marked. We investigated both ways and after walking down and back we found that one was overgrown and emptied into a meadow with a fence blocking the way. We decided it must be the other path, so we went down. At this point we ran into a couple other pilgrims with the similar dilemma. We followed that path for sometime. It was winding and muddy. The path then required us to go over a small river walking on a log and then up a steep path with thorny brambles. After about two hours on the path we finally emerged with another choice. Left into a town or right into more forest paths. Gill and I didn't see the other pilgrims and decided that the lack of way markings was beyond troubling. We went into the town to ask directions. That's when both of us started to get a strange deja vu feeling. Both of us were hoping it wasn't so. But sure enough we were back in the town we had been in before the path, El Franco. We saw the same left arrow and sat on a bench to figure out what the heck to do. We had investigated all those possible paths to no avail. Then along came a pilgrim that had still been asleep when we left the albergue that morning. We told him what was going on and he pulled out GPS on his phone and told us the highway was to the right. We ignored the left facing arrow and went right and sure enough, there was another way marking at the next turn. We walked on and left the town about 10min later. Gill and I, both exhausted from our bramble filled 2hr climb got to a mossy concrete descent and both busted. She landed on her knee and I landed on my backside. Both of us fell. At the same time. At this point we had walked almost the total distance that we needed to walk for the day. It just happened to be in a giant circle. That one arrow pointing the wrong way caused a lot of trouble. Hungry, sore, and weary we asked directions to a bar(they are basically the place to go for food around here). Turns out the only bar in 10 km just happened to be in, you guessed it El Franco, 1km back to the city that never ends. Gill says in Spain all roads lead to El Franco. We made it to the bar and called it quits. We called a cab. Both of us felt like we failed and we had to remind ourselves that this is one day in many. We got to where we were staying and showered and crashed for a couple of hours before finding some food. I guess after a long day the basic necessities are really all you want. That and some candy. We got candy too.