Ribadumia to Vilanova de Arousa

Beautiful day again in Galicia, the temps for the next week are hot, hot, hot. We had a great breakfast at the rural casa we were staying at, the mamma out back in  the kitchen made the best eggs and the O.J was so fresh. 

We set off early and  had our first stop at Capela San Pedro de Mouzos  - a tiny little chapel in a hamlet  amongst the vineyards.

It was lovely walking through the vineyards.

They grow mainly  albarinio grapes here on small holdings that supply the major vineyard. Unfortunately the vineyard bodega was not open when we were walking past.

We were looking for a shady place to rest and came upon the Igrexa de San Miguel de Reiro and a kind gentleman stopped mowing the lawns and unlocked the church for us so we could sit inside in the cool.

A simple little village church with a bell tower and an external bell pull to call people to service or to raise the alarm in a case of a fire especially with the eucalyptus forest being so close. It was very tempting to pull that bell.. but we resisted.

There are over 10,000 cruceiros  in Galicia. They are to guide the traveller and you'll find them at crossroads. They also  protect the harvests and we came across them in the fields and the vines.  The oldest date back to the 14th century. 

The lemons here are enormous and abundant and the blossom smells divine!

 We had a steep climb  to walk to San Roque do Mont. The path was  a blend of walking through a eucalypt forest and then back into vineyards again.

In the little hamlet of San Roque do Mont there's a memorial to the humble donkey.

I couldn't find out the history but now the village celebrates a fiesta to the donkey  and they have donkey races apparently.

It was lovely to come back to the coast again. We rested for a while in the shade of the pine trees and watched a white heron fishing in the shallows.

There's quite a bit of seaweed on the shoreline. The water looks beautiful and on another day we would have jumped in but we still had a little bit more of hiking to be done to get to the village of Vilanova de Arousa.

We  crossed a little footbridge to the town proper.

There is a big fishing fleet here that harvest muscles, clams, cockles and fresh fish of course. As we came over the footbridge and were looking down, we could see three divers with air tanks just slowly cruising along the sea floor and we think they were collecting shellfish, but not sure.

The economy here is still linked to fishing, especially to shellfish and  mussel farming with hundreds of platforms all along the coast. We'll get to see these up close tomorrow as we need to take a boat for tomorrow's stage.

There looks to be lots of public sculptures but it was too hot to wander, our priority was to find our hotel and get our packs off. So sculptures shots tomorrow.

We have walked from Pontevedra to Vilanova de Arousa - tomorrow is our final stage to Pontcesures and it's via boat - yay! Many will walk on to Padron and then Santiago de Compostela however we took this path a few years back so won't walk it again. 

Hasta luego amigos 👍

Amenteira to Ribadumia

Short day today as we have a long day tomorrow. We had a leisurely start to the day - coffee in the plaza by the cathedral, sitting in the sun with cafe con leche and bocadilla con jamon.  We got chatting to  a German walker who used to live in Whangarei! 

Today's walk is called the Stone and Water walk - a path of very old Roman water courses, waterways and old mill stones/mill buildings  - all covered in moss and ivy.

Lots of locals use this walk and it was nice to see a group of young school kids scrambling across the rocks and enjoying being in nature. The girls were adorable - after saying buenes dias I said 'hello girls' and they smiled and as they passed me each called out hello - language exchange in nature 😊, their teachers were lovely too and as we passed you have that momentary acknowledgement and exchange, brief but heartening. 

 Looks very similar to New Zealand albeit the trees are myrtle, oak, hazelnut and almond trees but it's very lush and NZie. Had to be careful on the rocks. 

There are several places where there are petroglyphs and some of the old mill buildings are hundreds of years old - it almost looks like they will disappear back into nature before too long. The Roman watercourse engineering and water channels were amazing and so critical to being able to mill the wheat grown in the area. 

30 degrees today so it was lovely to walk in the shade of the trees and alongside the water for most of today,  spotting the odd little trout in the streams and we saw  lots of lovely electric blue dragonflies flitting, flying and skimming across the water - very peaceful and restful. 

They eat a lot of jamon here- it's great on toast for breakfast with a dash of olive oil. Vegetarians look away:)

We are staying at a touristico rustica, a local village inn which serves the local produce. 

It's funny how small things, when travelling, can make a difference. We checked in and our room smelt of Roman plumbing, so the next room we were offered smelled of cigarettes - (they still smoke like chimneys here)  and the final room we were offered had a private terrace - jackpot - washing done, temporary line up and washing dry in no time at all (30 degrees). We like to be clean!   

We had a lovely dinner, salads, fresh fish, manchego cheese, albarinio local wine - perfecto

Hasta luego! 

Combarro - Armenteira

We we got up early as we knew it   was going to be a hot day and we had a very steep hill climb out of Combarro.

 We had great views out over the harbor. 

At one stage just when you are gasping and don't think you can carry on you turn the corner and there is an honesty box with soda, beer, water  - for a donation. Some good souls know just when the walkers are probably at breaking point 😊

We walked through some lovely forests, alongside streams. The ground was quite rocky and quite steep in places, the pictures don't show how vertical it was but you had to be super careful not to twist your ankle.

We saw some beautiful electric blue dragonflies and massive slugs!

We are staying in the local municipal albergue. The monasterio was full. We bumped into a group of 30 plus Americans from Virginia on the trail. Lots of Italians. We walked with a father and daughter from Holland who were lovely and we shared the menu del dia with them.

We are lucky to be in the albergue tonight. We watched as a young couple walked in very tired after walking over the mont only to be told the municipal albergue was full, the girl burst into tears. The volunteer at the albergue was super helpful and trying to find him a place to stay for the night.

Poio - Combarro

 Tuesday 24th May 2022

 Just a short walk for us today, a lovely walk along the sea front. 

We took our time and enjoyed being close by the sea again. Although it was overcast, it was a refreshing change from the heat on the inland heat of the Camino de Madrid. 

 We walked for a while with a nice young German guy who was walking alone. He put us on to the Camino Ninja app which was super helpful.  We passed locals planting their summer allotment gardens.

Our destination was Combrarro. A quaint little Galician fishing village where a traditional fishing fleet still operates.

The houses run down to the sea and whilst it's 'chocolate box' touristy, people still live there and make a living from the sea and tourism which has been hit hard through Covid. Interesting to see signs as you enter the village to wear masks, but noone was!

I love seeing the bread delivery system in the villages, hang your bread bag on tbe door and a man in a little white van delivers you your pan

 Since we were walking a short distance we were able to have a leisurely lunch by the seafront and it was lovely to have fresh fish of the day - sardine and Meluza - like blue cod in NZ.

Pulpo - delicious!

Tomorrow, Wednesday 25th May, we have a big walk over very steep hill  out of Combarro so early to bed for us as we want to start walking before it gets too hot - forecast is for 28°

Hasta luego amigos👍🏃