We were quite late getting away today as our delicious hotel breakfast wasn't served till 8am. To rejoin the Camino Ingles, we headed cross-country, through small villages and forests. We saw evidence of road widening, possibly for the logging.
Once we rejoined the Camino, we crossed the motorway and headed downhill through forests. We came across our first pilgrims straight away and there was a steady stream from then on. We had long views down to the estuary - getting closer to the sea!
Before too long, we came to Betanzos and the main square, where a small market was going on. There was a statue honouring two brothers who returned from Argentina and invested money in their hometown, and a statue of the goddess Diana. We headed into the historic old town, where flags were being put up ready for a medieval festival. We passed the municipal albergue and to our surprise found Dirk, one of the first pilgrims we'd met on the Via de la Plata. We'd met him briefly again in Salamanca but hadn't expected to see him again - Camino magic, in Dirk's words. A real highlight of the day!
Dirk was waiting outside the albergue to ensure a bed, as there has been a lot of pressure due to the large number of pilgrims walking. We exchanged news, talked of pilgrims we all knew, then said goodbye for the last time.
Before heading uphill on the Camino once more, we had a drink in one of the cafes on the main square, people watching. When we left, we saw large numbers of pilgrims coming the other way. A pilgrim from Almagro stopped to ask why we were going the wrong way. We told her, and she told us about her home town - beautiful square, famous for theatre, cheese and Don Quixote. She texted her brother José, who was leading her group of forty-five pilgrims. He introduced us to Zev, an Australian in the group. Zev is trying to wind down his work as a film maker as he heads towards retirement, and his Camino Ingles is part of that.
After these encounters, we limited ourselves to 'buen camino' as we passed, except for helping a pilgrim get her water bottle out of her side pocket and reassuring people that we were doing the Camino in reverse. Some were worried they were going the wrong way! We passed a 'Camino Angels' rest area at the top of a steep incline (from the other side), where they were handing out drinks and snacks. There were little roadside stalls too where you could purchase Camino souvenirs or drinks and snacks for a donation. Just after a stone bridge, we passed a tap on someone's gate labelled 'drinking water - you can drink'.
After some more road and rail crossings under and over, we ended up at Miño. As we were a bit late for lunch, we purchased bread, tinned fish, tomato and mineral water at the supermarket and had a picnic overlooking the concrete court. There was no action but it probably comes alive in the evening with kids riding their bikes, playing with balls and just generally messing about.
It was 4pm and we still had 10km to go. Fortunately, we had some dirt track after all the asphalt earlier. We went under roads, over another stone bridge, past a golf course and did a lot of climbing. We saw no other pilgrims - they had all sensibly finished much earlier.
Finally we descended into Pontedeume, with wonderful views over the town and river. We cleaned up and did our washing quickly before heading out to a very satisfactory dinner of meat, salad and chips. Their medieval festival is starting tomorrow, so we saw lots of stalls being set up. We had a walk by the river before heading back to our hotel.
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| In Betanzos with our German friend Dirk - who was delighted to appear in our blog again |
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| A pleasant start to today's walk - on the road through a forested area |
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| We rejoined the Camino Inglés for the descent into Betanzos |
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| Betanzos |
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| Betanzos |
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| Betanzos |
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| Betanzos |
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| Leaving Betanzos |
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| Climbing away from Betanzos |
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| We met Spanish tour guide José and Australian walker Zev coming the other way |
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| Lovely scenery being enjoyed by the crowds of walkers on the Camino Inglés |
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| Coming into Miño |
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| Into and out of Miño on the Camino Inglés |
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| On from Miño towards Pontedeume |
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| The Camino Inglés towards Pontedeume |
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| About to descend into Pontedeume |
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| Pontedeume |
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| Pontedeume |
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| Pontedeume, where preparations are in train for their annual Medieval fair, which starts tomorrow |
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| The bridge at Pontedeume - our way out tomorrow |
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| The rooftop ball which is common in these parts is apparently an individual water tank (according to a gentleman who had one on his roof, and whom we asked) |
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| Birds |
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| Flowers |
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| Animals |
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| Tractors and diggers |
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| Horreos |
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| Day 73 - Map |
Day: 73
Distance: 30.68 km
Walking time: 6 hrs 34 mins
Elevation gain: 862 metres
Cumulative distance: 1,487.64 km
Silhouette, Eurasian Magpie, possibly Yellow-legged Gull, not sure this bird has a very long bill, silhouette possibly House Sparrow
ReplyDeletethe long billed one might be a Caspian Gull or Slender-billed Gull but either would be rare/uncommon at Pontedeume.
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