I thought you might be interested in the view from our room at the Mar de Plata hotel in Siarra. Not exactly a million dollar view, unless you really, really like Coca-Cola!
We had nothing to complain about with the weather today: cloudy with many sunny periods, and no rain. As expected, there were many more pilgrims on the trail today, but we had passed most of them within the first hour. We walked many beautiful wooded trails today...
...and on many different surfaces, constructed with pilgrims in mind...
We came across many of this type of structure today, and finally discovered that their purpose was to store dry goods where rats and other rodents cannot get at them.
We also hit a milestone today, quite literally, as we reached the point where we have less than 100 kms to go to arrive in Santiago...
Another striking thing about today's walk was the rock fences, one after another, dividing the fields and the field from the roads or walkways. I can't imagine how much work it must have taken over time to construct these...
...and there many fences constructed with barbed wire wrapped around menhirs - if you've ever read the Asterix comic series, you know what these are...
The trails were again often narrow and forested, just the way we prefer them...
And in the village of Parrocha, we found ourselves in the middle of a "cattle drive." Many milking cows are grazing outdoors, and we wondered how much work it might be to bring them all in for milking. Not much, as it turns out. There are sheep dogs, and there are cow dogs, and we watched this German Shepherd (cowherd?) get all the cows in in short order and make sure not one of them strayed...
Although the picture above doesn't show it, all these cattle literally grazed us as they walked by. With their long horns, you can imagine that we tried to squeeze as close to the edge of the road as we could. I thought for sure that Diane was going to jump over the fence into the next field. It was close, and it was fun. Here we follow the herd, and then walk through this cozy village...
We stopped for lunch today in the village of Mercadoiro, yet another place where entrepreneurs are taking good advantage of the pilgrim trade. We had a delicious vegetable soup with bread and cold drinks for our al frescoe lunch...
We approached our day's destination around 1:30, and the first significant body of water we have seen since we crossed the ocean, in the town of Portmarin...
To get to it, we had to walk down a hill with a grade of 20%, very hard on our toes! One person walked it backwards. We also discovered that we are staying the night in cabins by the river, which are located 2 kms off the beaten Camino path! We were happy to hear that a ride would be provided in the morning to get us to where the Camino begins in Portomarin. Here's our home for the night, and the view of the river (thankfully, no Coke machine in sight)...
Half an hour after we arrived, we met in the cafe on site to enjoy a couple of sangrias, in celebration of the fact that we have less than 100 kms to go (though we would have made up any old excuse). We'll be dining on site at 7, and the menu looks delicious, since we are not about to walk an additional 4 kms to look for a place in town.
Total distance: 24.4 ( we had to walk 2 kms extra to get to our hotel!)
Time on the road: 6:10
Total distance to date: 702:5
Walking days remaining: 5
You guys are all looking great! Enjoy the last 100 km!!
ReplyDeleteWe have lived the trip through your blog - was great to read and look at photos. You did a great job letting us know what you were experiencing. Strength for the last 5 days - you can do it.
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