We’ve shuffled into Palas de Rei after a somewhat tiring 25 kilometres along tarmac punctuated by short sections through mainly deciduous woodlands.

Shortly after leaving the hostel we stopped for breakfast along with a dozen or more peregrinos amongst whom was Alessandro (yup, Dorothy asked him his name) the young Italian lad we met at dinner in Fonfria. He’d taken our advice and had posted 7kg of unnecessary baggage to Santiago but was still carrying in excess of 12kg. He was relatively bright and bushy tailed but limped noticeably when he left before us.

After a hearty breakfast we followed some ten minutes later. The next image shows the current water level in the reservoir on the western side of the bridge.

It can’t be healthy to have these levels at this time of year. When we passed here in April five years ago the lake was completely full. Without an adequate water supply life can become decidedly tricky. 😞

Shortly afterwards we came across a choice of routes.

Everyone else went left on the’ official’ route leaving us in relative peace and quiet for the first time. The path began climbing almost immediately and passed by a quite extraordinary wall and adjoining house.

The path rises steeply but Dorothy at least was up to the challenge this early in the morning.

It wasn’t too long before the hill flattened out and we found ourselves trundling along a broad earthen path.

After a while the path dropped down and we passed a mural (https://youtu.be/kgZMZWxEJwk). The Spanish have great respect for their artists, their writers and their philosophers and their villages, towns and cities are full of interesting murals and sculptures, often representing complex abstract ideals in addition to more tangible objects.

The last time we passed this way there was evidence everywhere of fires that had destroyed large areas of woodland. New growth has compensated for the losses but there are still signs of what was lost.

It was extremely busy on the Camino today. We seem to have been ‘surfing’ the Camino wave and it was only after two o’clock when most will have reached their albergues and pensions that we found ourselves relatively alone. Until then, at any one time there were typically a dozen peregrinos in view in front and another dozen behind. At each bar there were perhaps thirty to fifty more.

We ate lunch at a busy bar attended by two utterly gorgeous elderly dogs, a huge Alsatian and an even larger golden retriever.

At our penultimate stop the Brazilian priest shuffled by still dragging his right leg. Alessandro had been in conversation with him yesterday and the priest is suffering from a painful right knee but has no time to stop if he is to meet his return flight in Lisbon.

Galicia is a very rural county and one finds large numbers of cows, goats and chickens with the occasional pig farm.

Much of the path is alongside barns and through farmyards and tractors and rusting farm equipment litter the area. It’s clearly a fairly impoverished region but we’ve noticed significant improvements since 2018. There are still plenty of abandoned and derelict farm sheds and old houses but there are many newly refurbished houses with well rendered exteriors and beautiful potted plants.

Unlike our walk up to O Cebreiro, we saw perhaps a dozen butterflies all day. There was little new in the hedgerows but we did come across this beautiful plant.

On the final descent to Palas de Rei we found these every ten metres or so. The path runs from the municipal albergue into town, a distance of perhaps 500 metres and I suspect that they’re lights which use a polished piece of metal to reflect light onto the path. If not, I have absolutely no idea what they are.

Does anyone have any idea what this final image is of?

We’ve stopped at a highly recommended albergue, Albergue-pension San Marcos. We’ve showered, Dorothy has slept while I’ve written this and we’ll head out shortly to a local pulpería (we’ll stick to salad) for food and perhaps a glass of wine. We’re surprisingly tired, perhaps my running shoes aren’t really designed for long walks on (sometimes) rough terrain. My calves and toes are protesting vigorously about the abuse currently being heaped upon them. No doubt we’ll get to Santiago without incident but in the meantime it hurts 😢.

Buen camino

Addendum