Baamonde, Galicia

 Baamonde, Galicia  

I had an early start as the hotel opened for breakfast at 7.30am although it was quiet and a complete change from the hubbub at Casa Goas the morning before at the same time. 

It was a level walk through the town centre which I had checked out the afternoon before. Then the trail dipped down to cross a river. 

But of course after a down, there is always an up. After the river crossing, El Camino climbs up the other side of the valley and the first up slope of the day. 

Looking out of the hotel, I thought that it was going to be a clear start, but once out of the town, the countryside was still cloaked in mist and it was damp.  But the dampness in the sir did condense on everything including several large cobwebs, some the size of dinner plates.

At one junction, I saw no way markers even after checking both routes for any signs. One route turned away from the nearby motorway. I knew the route ran near teh motorway and then dipped under it. I ignored the route that turned away and followed the route that run parallel to the road. The route dipped under the motorway so I still felt that I was on the right route until I came to a junction and there were no markers. 

Then I realised that I must have made the wrong decision. I had walked too far to double back but the route continued in the right direction and parallel to and between both the motorway and the N634 so as long as I continued between teh two I was still heading in the right direction. The correct El Camino route was somewhere off on the other side of the motorway but would cut underneath it, cross my trail and rejoin teh N634 just off to my left. 

That plan worked well until the path I was on turned south under the N634 and there was no junction. The rural route I was on didn't connect with the N634. There were stout fences and thick vegetation and no way that I could push my way through to where I needed to be. I checked out all the alterntives, gates to fields, weaknesses in fences and stretches of woodlands.

By chance, I saw an overgrown channel that drained rain water runoff from the N634 down past the track that I had followed. It was steep but sufficiently overgrown with stout saplings that provided plenty of support to climb up the channel. I wasn't exactly back on track but I was walking along N634 and somewhere ahead of me, El Camino would join it.

I had only seen one pilgrim all morning, and I passed him on the outskirts of Vilalba, but not surprising if I had taken the wrong route. Ahead, I saw a pilgrim emerge from a junction and cross the road. I was now back on track. It was a pleasant walk through farmland and having left the mountains behind, there were only gentle slopes and no steep mountain paths to climb. And away from the road, it was a pleasant walk through rustic countryside without the sound of any traffic.

I passed plenty of buildings using locally available materials. There were a lot of stone buildings using rocks that could be quarried from anywhere. Only the doors and windows neated some masonery skills to produce a good straight surround. And one feature that was reproduced in many local buildings was not just dressed stone around the openings,  but two thirds up the opening, be it a door or a window, there was a stretcher block, much longer than necessary for constructural needs, so it must have been for local asetic taste. 

It was 11am and it was still misty. The air didn't seem so damp and it was warmer and brighter but visibility was still poor as the sun was till struggling to burn off the mist. Another thing that I noticed was that the flagstones set upright as field boundaries were well maintained and well built with rarely a gap between the stones. 

At the end of the days walk, the route returned to the road with lots of heavy traffic as the route weaved its way into Baamonde and the end of the day's walk. I just had to sit in the local cafe for a couple of hours for Lesley to catch me up and for our hosts for the evening to come and collect us. There was a shortage of accomadation locally so our hotel for the night was over 20 kilometres away from the official El Camino route.

But the wait and the drive was worth it. We had a stone former farmhouse, renovated and modernised and a range of outbuildings all to ourselves. The outside of the farmhouse.

One of the rooms had a balocny and its own external staircase. 

There was an horreo in the extensive grounds, plus...

...a games room in one of the outhouses and a swimming pool.

The kitchen diner...

...the entrance hall...

...a sitting area with a giant fireplace...

...and another reception area with settees and another table.

Vilalba, Galicia

 Vilalba, Galicia  

The place where I was booked into had several functions. It had two floors of private rooms and operated as a pension. The top floor was an alberque for pilgrims with dormitory beds for pilgrims at half the price of a room. Its ground floor was a cafe and restaurant. It offers a set menu for lunch and evening meal which was both cheap and fillling.

Breakfast was in the cafe and consisted of coffee, fruit juice and a sandwich. It was also full and noisy. It was a place where people gathered for a morning coffee, and for a chat before going to work. There were a few pilgrims but the majority were locals who dropped in for a few minutes for a coffee.

I was chatting with Lesley over breakfast. Another pilgrim heard us chatting in English and joined us. He was from Ireland. Whilst our longest days may be in the low 30s kiometres a day, he was averaging over 30 kilometres a day and sometimes not always out of choice. We had started to walk and had intially relied on finding an alberque with  spare bed. But sometime the alberques were full and he had had to walk on to find somewhere to sleep.

With extra longdays walking that were not planned, he had started to book ahead whilst walking. SOme places were full and he still had to walk further than planned or to make large diversions off the route to find somewhere to stay. And now that we were getting nearer to Santiago de Compostela, there were more pilgrims and finding a bed was becoming harder with some places operating dytnamic pricing, increasing the price when demand was high. 

Pilgrims need to walk at least a 100 kilometres to comply with the rules and to obtain their compostela. Now that we were just 140 kilometres from the goal, there were more pilgrims as some only had a week free to walk and might start around here to have a week of walking, and see the beutiful countryside and walk more than the minimum 100 kilometres.

Autumn had well and truely set in. There was a thick mist everywhere that lasted most of the morning. It made everyting damp as moisture condensed on clothing. I had looked out of the wndow before breakfast to check on the weather and there were already pilgrims on the road walking past in the dark. lit up by the lights from their phones as they searched for those elusive yellow arrows.

After several days of hilly walking, today's stretch was less challenging with fewer hills. Much of it was off road with long sections through quiet forest.

There were streams to cross, but instead of bridges, some were just fords but the crossing had been improved with granite blocks to walk on with raised parts to one side for pilgris to cross the stream without getting their feet wet. 

It was mid morning but it was still misty with visibility quiet low in places. 

There were still things to note en route. At one junction was a stone cross on a tall column although there was no information board to advise any name or history. 

There were several sections where the route followed a sunken lane. The route followed a flatter route than the terrain might otherwise allow with shallow cuttings through forest with the natural ground level at head height. These sunken lanes are known locally as corredoira.   

Another unique feature was for the edge of the route and used to denote edges of fields and woods were the use of large rectangular slabs of rock set into the ground

It was an early form of fencing and used extensively as the local rock could be cleaved into manageable thin slabs to mark field boundaries.

As it was autumn, there was also a lot of mushrooms such as this giant, the size of a dinner plate with my boot at teh bottom of the picture to give an indication of size.

On the outskirts of Vilalba, I passed a rusting steam engine standing on a concrete plinth and there must be a story here but there was no information board to advise the curious passerby. It was too early to sign into my hotel so I continued into the centre of teh city. There was quite a lot of modern concrete city to walk through before...

...reaching the old centre of the city and the Plaza y Iglesia de Santa Marie. Its building style was different from other cathedrals en route with corners of walls picked out in stone but the walls were whitewashed. I might have looked inside if the entry price was reasonable but the doors were locked.

                                       

there were other interesting buildings around the plaza and down narrow cobbled side streets...

...but one building stood out, the 15th century medieval Torre de los Andrade, part of thecastle belonging to the Andrade family who were influenceial in the town's development. It has since been converted into a parador hotel. 

I had lunch bought from a local supermarket before retracing my steps to find my hotel in the suburbs.