Friday, 29th September.
Road worms

I woke up suddenly, in the dark, to the sound of someone snoring. Well that's just brilliant, I thought. I rolled over and Noelle was looking at me. "You were snoring!" she hissed.
"I don't believe you." I replied.
"You were!"
"It wasn't me, it's some bloke over there."
"You were snoring, I woke you up!"
"Oh great, you woke me up so I could listen to someone else snore!"
Noelle rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Your snoring was keeping me awake!"
"Are you sure it wasn't the other guy's snoring that was keeping you awake?"
Noelle didn't punch me. "He started snoring just as you woke up."
Hmm, the old tag team classic!

So we lay there, listening to some bloke snoring, unable to get back to sleep. Then the woman in the bunk beneath Noelle cranked it up. Just brilliant. Then some others joined in. A chorus of snoring broke out around us.
"I'm never sleeping next to you again - you attract snorers!" said Noelle. Ridiculous concept! As if I do!

What are road worms? Road worms are a bit like Snuffleupagus: Noelle can see them but no-one else can. But unlike Snuffleupagus, road worms aren't real. We spent a good part of today looking at the road in case we saw these damn road worms.

(We didn't.)

We walked between fields of corn under grey skies. We passed rectangular tree plantations. The Spanish seem to have this thing about planting little groups of trees in a perfect rectangle, with all the trees perfectly spaced - it's quite surreal. Perhaps someone should tell them that that's not how trees grow ordinarily. But it won't be me - I don't speak Spanish.

It was mid-afternoon when we sighted the 200m long bridge at the entrance to Hospital de Orbigo.

The refugio we stayed in had a courtyard, and the cooking area was at one side of the courtyard. "Spanish barbecue area," I quipped, to no-one's amusement.

We hung out at one of the local bars in the early evening. Meet Joe Black was on tv, in dubbed Spanish. Which was weird. But the girls still watched it. Some moustachioed Spanish man was kicking the pokie machine, trying to get his money back.

Just your average Friday night in Hospital de Orbigo.