Monthly Archives: October 2014

Well we made it. We arrived in Santiago de Compostela today after a hard days slog in the pouring rain. It had rained most of yesterday, all last night and today. This meant that the tracks had turned into creeks and rivers. It made for slow progress. Of the 21km’s today 16km were in the pouring rain.
We stopped at about the half way mark and took shelter in a cafe, where we opted for a hot coffee and a sock change. It’s surprising how good dry socks feel.

We waited for a break in the rain before setting off again.

About 5km out of Santiago de Compostela a large monument has been erected at Monte de Gozo to honour the pilgrims.

It was a bit of a slog from Monte de Gozo into Santiago de Compostela, through industrial areas and the suburbs.

We had to stop with about 1.5km to go for a vino and tapas.

When we arrived at the Cathedral we got a little lost in the narrow streets near the cathedral. But eventually found our way there.

The cathedral is undergoing major renovations.

After that we found the Pilgrims office, where obtained our Compostela’s.

We had a full day walking in the rain. Paths turned into creeks, dirt turned into mud. We had to watch our step or end up ankle deep in water and mud. Yes we got a little wet!

A drowned rat

It would have been a nice walk if it had been sunny, through tree covered laneway’s, farms, fields, villages, etc. It’s like walking through the Dandenong or Macedon ranges. The tracks are lined with ferns, gum trees and pine trees.

The pics are few and far between when it’s raining.

One of things we have noticed is that as we near a city, or as we we get closer to Santiago the graffiti and defacing of signage is increasing. Maybe some people really don’t want to be on the Camino.

O’Pedrousa is not a large town and seems to be built along the main road. Our accommodation is a little out of town, and we walked back into town for something to eat. It rained again so we had to wait for the rain to stop before heading back to our hostel.

Tomorrow onto Santiago.

Today was not going to be a long day, we have broken up 30km+ section into 2 days. Leaving town we followed the arrows as usual, however this town also had a statue pointing the way.

The walk was not too hard as we took it easy and had a couple of stops along the way. The first at Casanova,

Casanova

Even the cows were taking it easy.

There were a few Eucalyptus plantations along the way today.

We walked over rolling hills, down country lanes and over small creeks.

Tomorrow we will have been on the road a month and we will only have 3 days to go before reaching Santiago de Compostela.

Last night we stayed in a very nice hotel, it even had a gym and swimming pool. Slight problem, we didn’t feel like any more exercise and the pool was green. The must only have the filters turned on during summer.

All along the trip we see signs warning motorists of deer crossing the road, we actually saw 3 or 4 deer today, running through a clearing in the forest. They were moving too quick to get a photo.

We often see Hydrangeas in gardens or beside the road, Janice snapped a photo of these.(Janice is actually the photographer for this blog).

The path today took us through rolling hills, what would be day on the Camino without a hill or two, and through fields of corn as well as Eucalyptus tree plantations. It is Autumn here and the trees are starting to lose their leaves, we have been walking along paths lined with oak trees. The leaves have been falling, as have the acorns. The path’s are littered with fallen acorns.

Once again we managed our arrival timing well, just as we arrived into Palas del Rei it started to rain. After we settled and we went to the bar to get a drink and snack pilgrims were arriving after having to walk in the rain.

We started off after first light, and we were going downhill for a while, but we still had to get over Alto do Poio, the highest point on this mountain range. For most of the day we were above the clouds, and the valleys were full of fog.

The view towards Santiago de Compostela

The paths, while rocky at times, were generally quite good and tree lined.

At times it seemed we were walking on paths that had been carved over hundreds of years by the feet of millions of pilgrims.

The views were of rolling hills, and patchwork fields.

Of course cows have right of way, this includes the farmer on his donkey and his German Shepherd dog (called Killer).

During our walk today we passed through a number of small villages, at one of them was possibly the smallest church. It wasn’t open but it could not have held more than 20 people.

Very small church

At another village we were stopped by a little old lady, selling the pancakes she had made. From milk from her own cows and eggs from her own chickens, and she pointed to the cows in her shed and chickens running around the yard. The were very nice.

At another village they were selling fresh raspberries and cranberries they had picked. They were very fresh and nice also.

Fresh, fresh, fresh

Relaxing

We were reminded we are in Galicia with its Celtic heritage as some Pilgrims were piped into town.