Lourenza, Galicia

 Lourenza, Galicia 

The weather forecast was for more rain with more than a 40% chance of rain all morning, but it dropped the the 20s in the afternoon. The itinerary said that it was to be a 31 kilometre walk that day and also helpfully added that there was a total ascent of 803 metres and that the terrain was 4 on a scale of 1-5 with one being easy and five being challenging. If I ever needed a reason to skip a day, there seemed to be quite a few reasons to take the bus inside.

The next stop for the night was Lourenza which isn;t on the railway network, and being a Sunday, taxis would be hard to fin and expensive. The two buses ran at either 6.40am or 17.50pm and took ages as it isn't a city centre to city centre bus but a rural service linking dozens of small villages.

I was ready to leave and looked out of the front of the hotel. It was cloudy with dark clouds in places but small lighter coloured clouds and a few patches of blue sky. But it wasn't actually raining. which had been raining, I would have asked the hotel to phone a taxi and I would pay whatever it took to arrive dry.

I left Lesley nursing a second cup of coffee as she debated with herself whether to take a day off. She had some blisters developing but had Compeed so she was leaving it to the weather gods, and if it was raining when she was ready to leave, she would take the bus.

I walked through the suburbs and took a wrong turn. I had researched the route out and it passed a soccer pitch. I could see the floodlights a few streets away and I was going down a tree lined avenue that led to a cemetery. My mind had wandered and so had my feet.

I back tracked and took the correct turning to pass the soccer field and out of town.

                                                 

Being a new region, there are a whole range of new signs for the pilgrim, although Galicia, being host to Santiago de Compostela and terminus of so many routes across the country and Europe have ensured that their signs are unambiguous. 

There are granite pylons at every junction to indicate the way to go. The are a little over waist height and taper gently towards the flat top. There is a yellow concha on a blue background pointing in the direction to follow, and below it a yellow arrow. Beneath that is the distance, in kilometres, to three decimal places, so these waymarkers claim to be accurate to within a metre. It is ever so reassuring that you can count down the distance to the final goal.

Galicia is sparsely populated and there would be no cities or large towns until Santiago de Compostela. The route would traverse mountains and forests and small villages and often little or no opportunity to buy supplies en route so some forward panning is essential. 

Much of the route was on forest tracks, high above the farmland cleared in the valley bottoms. 

There was a change in the horreos, The square horreos of Asturias standing on another storeroom had been replaced by long narrow buildings. This is a modern version to show that they are still being built and used but they will be plenty of traditional versions seen as the route travels deeper into Galicia. 

I had seen penty of date palms but they were all female. In order to get a crop of dates, the female date palm needs to be pollinated by a male tree. Commercial plantations plant one male tree for every 10 to 12 female trees to ensure sufficient pollen is available for a viable harvest. 

This was a sign that could not be missed. The benches are sponsored by a local bank throughout Galicia and the arrows always point in the right direction.

The 10th century Benedictine Monasterio de San Salvador, designed by architect Casas y Novoa who was also responsible for the facade of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. And my hotel for the night was just 200 metres further on.