They lied !

Gronze.com, the source of all that is honest and truthful about the Spanish Caminos said that apart from one significant descent and one ascent, the path today was fairly level. O boy, did they lie. The descent was long but ok, the ascent was long and very much not ok. The last section up to A Lastra was seriously steep, steep enough to make sliding back down a genuine possibility. In such situations, walking sticks are an absolute godsend. The rest of the day was spent walking up and down, up and down, seemingly without end.

Here’s mum on the final ascent.

It’s difficult to get a real perspective but trust me, it was steep.

The day started early. We’d stayed in an albergue so everyone was up before the crack of dawn. Whereas in most hotels people are fairly considerate about noise early in the morning, one’s fellow peregrinos assume that like them you are raring to tackle today’s challenges and can’t wait to be up and at ’em. Mum and I on the other hand like to wake up gently, peruse one’s aching limbs and check gingerly whether one is actually in a fit state to continue. Not today 😣.

We’d had breakfast and had left before the sun dared rise above the horizon. Indeed, it was after 5 o’clock this evening when it got up sufficient courage to do so. Inbetween we’ve spent most of the day in low cloud or a very fine drizzle.

Unlike the Camino Frances with a bar serving coffee and bocadillo jambon every 5km or so, the Primitivo is far more sparsely provisioned and our first stop today was after a little over 12km.

We’d bought food for lunch but indulged in a coffee and some toast and were quickly joined by 20 or so other peregrinos. It’s a source of continual wonder to me that you can seemingly walk for another ten kilometres or so, seeing barely another pilgrim, but stop for 5 minutes and you’re inundated with fellow travelers. You leave them behind and for the next dozen or so km you’re alone again, but stop and suddenly there are dozens around you. Incredible 😯.

Not many butterflies today but monster slugs

and chickens 🤗

Not so many flowers in evidence

But interesting architecture

This last image isn’t of snow but white Spanish concrete, an absolute horror to walk on, flat as a pancake.

We passed the Spanish equivalent of the Camino Frances’ red Italian today.

I love the hat.

He was a really nice chap but struggling on some of the steeper sections.

This I really liked – parking for horses 😊

The Spanish really make use of pretty much every square metre of unused land. Here they’re growing brassicas on a small triangle of wasteland next to the main road.

It seems that everyone grows these local brassicas.

Here are some more pictures of mum making her way up the path.

and here are some pictures of the countryside that we’re currently passing through.

We finally stopped this evening in a lovely albergue in O Cadavo. We’d not eaten much all day and both restaurants (it’s a very small village) were closed until 8 o’clock, so we had a late lunch of mixed salad and red wine in a small cafe next to the albergue. Mum, bless her cotton socks, is really worried about my getting gout and drank pretty much most of the bottle of vino tinto that we were given. Unsurprisingly, she’s now fast asleep alongside me as I write 😊.

We’d eaten too much last night in Fonsagarda (a three course menu peregrino) so a simple mixed salad was fine today. I reckon that given 25km of fairly strenuous walking, we’re probably in calorie deficit but who doesn’t want to lose weight these days 🤔.

It seems that the Spanish in this part of the world like their bee hives and we saw some more today.

That reminds me as to what to do with our hives. Dragon wants to import 10,000kg of Serbian blossom honey into the UK – a good idea? Hmmm, not sure.

Here are some final interesting photos from today.

And some hydrangeas 😉

Buen Camino