We’ve reached today’s destination, albergue Nava in the very, very small village of Ferreira.

As you can see from the photo, it’s a pleasant looking place 😊. Our room is small but comfortable with a communal dinner scheduled for 7:30 this evening. I’ve learned from my experiences of communal dinners on previous visits and will not be discussing religion, politics or anything remotely contentious. [Had dinner, no contentious discussions – in bed now at 9:29, mum is proud of me 👍].

The albergue last night was a little strange. It was in a large corner 6 storey city block with a couple of floors taken by the albergue, the remainder as family homes if the names on the letter boxes in the lobby are anything to go by. On the recommendation of the young lady receptionist we had dinner in a restaurant close by. We weren’t in a particularly salubrious area but the restaurant and Eriskis, the local supermarket were fine.

We left early and made our way through the deserted streets to a small bakers immediately inside the very impressive and substantial Roman walls.

We ate our croissant and coffee in the main plaza close to the cathedral. The Spanish like putting up statues to their favourite sons and daughters (mostly sons).

The cathedral itself was ok

as cathedral go – seen one, seen them all is a reasonable position to take, but in fairness some like Leon or Burgos or especially Chartres do stand out from the common herd.

Today’s route took us quickly away from Lugo and after a lovely walk across an old bridge across the river

and some reasonably steep minor roads through some wealthy suburbs with pretty flowers

and fallen apples

into the peace and quiet of a pine forest.

Walking today was disappointing. mostly on minor roads, not such a problem in my Nike running shoes with magic insoles but tiring nevertheless.

We did get to pass through numerous small hamlets, all with chickens, some enclosed in large grassy areas, others walking across said minor roads or hiding in foliage alongside the road and generally pretty much everywhere.

We saw a number of young calves with their mums.

And some interesting horreos (the strange wooden buildings used for drying corn and seen throughout Galicia).

We’d taken yesterday’s parched experience to heart and made sure that we had plenty of water with us. We’d managed to get some fresh fruit, bread and tomatoes and enjoyed a good lunch sitting on Menna’s birthday present.

The last 10km or so were pretty much a repetition of earlier, a couple of forest roads through some eucalyptus groves

but mostly tarmac 😔.

We arrived foot weary and tired, 28km from Lugo and now only a fraction over 73km from Santiago. Tomorrow’s journey will be very similar to the last two days we’ve been told which is a little disappointing. It’s only 20km to tomorrow’s albergue in Melide which is where we join the Camino Frances. The relative peace and quiet of the Camino Primitivo will disappear to be replaced by the noise and bustle of thousands of pilgrims covering the 100km from Sarria required for the compostela and the hundreds more who have come from further afield. Admittedly there will be the opportunity of coffee stops every few km so no need to carry any water or food. We’ll keep a close lookout for Korean pilgrims cheating their way across.

Buen Camino