Mad dogs and Englishwomen: the true story

Trip Start May 29, 2005
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Trip End Jul 29, 2005


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Sunday, July 17, 2005

OK. There seems to have been some slightly feverish exaggeration going on. Probably something to do with the god-like apparition that is the lovely Bertrand. I must admit he IS rather nice and is likely to turn a girl´s head, especially when she has been too long in the midday sun, and is terrified of dogs. Even little ones. That lie in the sun all day and don´t even bother to open their eyes.

There was a Maragato village, it is true. There were dogs, yes. They did bark, I must admit. There were about 7 of them. And they were large. That is about the shape and size of it. Seven very large dogs guarding a pen of sheep and goats stood in the midday sun and barked at me for as long as it took me to walk past them. About 15 seconds in all. They didn´t growl, they didn´t bare their teeth, they didn´t advance in a threatening manner. They just said, "On your way, girl, these are our sheep, there´s nothing here for the likes of you." (I speak much better ´Sheepdog´ than Suki does.) To Suki they said, "Go the other way, love, you´re obviously far too nervous to tread this path. This path is for power pilgrims only."

And so it came to pass that Suki hightailed it to the next village to quaff cool drinks and tasty snacks with the lovely Frenchman, while Angela sat and wondered what had happened to her walking companion and fellow traveller, who had only to walk back to the path and follow the main road down to the Maragato village - ooh, about a minute and a half´s detour, at most. Angela had a lovely time wandering round the village, wondering if her trusty travelling companion had got lost, or was lying savaged in a ditch somewhere, or was nursing a broken ankle by the wayside. She spent many a happy moment musing on these possibilities while she walked to the next village, planning on what to do next, wondering what the Spanish version of 999 might be, trying to muster up enough Spanish to get the village rallying round with emergency equipment and first aid. Imagine her delight when she saw that Suki was fine and well fed and enjoying pleasant company. Imagine her concern and sympathy to find out that poor Suki was very troubled and had had to spend a couple of hours gathering up the energy to organise a rescue...*


* If any of you are concerned at this point, let us reassure you that this was 13 days ago and we are still talking to each other. Life is lovely up here in Galicia and although we have been separated from the lovely Betrand, it is always possible that we will meet him again in Sunny Santiago...
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