Month: April 2019

Post by Wynette: We didn’t do any ocean walking today. We could see our destination, Foz, just across the estuary, probably one or two miles as the crow flies. But no bridge or ferry or very strong crow to take us there. We had to walk around the estuary to get to Foz, so we put in a nine mile day. (Foz is pronounced foth, long O, rhymes with both.)

We quite enjoyed the walk. Went through a couple of lovely old ramshackle villages, something I’ve missed on this Camino.

After about 4 miles we came to the restaurant where we hoped to have our first coffee and food for the day. We had to walk about 200 yards out of our way down a busy highway to get to it. The restaurant was huge. Served highway travelers. To our relief it was open. There was a big tour bus in the parking lot but we’d seen that once before and weren’t too worried about getting our coffee and eggs. But, the bar where you stood to order was mobbed. I stood there probably 20 minutes and no server even looked at me. Charlie was holding the table at the other side of the restaurant. I finally texted him and said I hadn’t been able to order. We didn’t think we had any other place to eat for miles. Charlie checked Google Maps again and found a bakery/pastry shop/bar another 300 yards up the road. So we ditched the big place and headed to the humble bakery. They were open! Pink (except with blue hair) waited on us. She didn’t seem excited about making fried eggs and toast but she said yes to our request. We had a tranquil breakfast with especially good toast.

• 

If you look closely you can see it on the big rock in the center. It was low tide, you can see the high tide line on the lower left foreground. Here is a closeup.

• 

We don’t know who put it there. It looks like it may be fastened on, not sure.

I figured it would be cool to go down there, climb up, sit in it, and have Wynette take photos. Then wait for high tide, about four hours, when the rock was surrounded by the ocean and take more photos.

But Wynette was not willing to suffer for my art. You’ll have to imagine how cool the photos would have been.

Post by Wynette: This morning we passed this man carrying a bucket and a long hook thing. He’d just popped up to the walkway from the rocks along the beach. I couldn’t resist asking what he had in his bucket. He showed us. It was octopus, what they call pulpo in Spain. Anyone who’s done the Camino to Santiago knows that the Galicians love pulpo and there are restaurants everywhere that specialize in it. Charlie and I have tried it a few times but haven’t developed a taste for it. It is very chewy/rubbery.

After we passed the man we looked down and saw another man with a similar pole. Probably fishing for octopi as well.

Post by Wynette: We left earlier than usual this morning. A bit before sunrise. Forecast was for a warmer than usual day and we wanted to avoid the excruciating walk in 68 degree weather.

We walked a little more than 8 miles. The Ruta was more developed today. Much of it paved trails and more houses along the way. But a thoroughly enjoyable walk.

In the last half of the walk we went along a huge sandy beach that went on for miles.

I’ve been enjoying the beautiful ice plant on the headlands. Then we saw a sign that said they are invasive plants and there is effort to eradicate them. That makes it harder to enjoy them but they really are pretty. Kind of like the salt cedar (tamarisk) trees in the US southwest, such as along the Rio Grande and in the Grand Canyon. They are such pretty trees and do so much damage to the native habitat.

Post by Wynette: Today (April 16) we started along the Camino del Mar which mostly follows the Ruta Cantábrica, a system of trails that follow the Atlantic coast in northern Galicia. We walked about 7.5 miles.

The Camino here is poorly marked. We see a yellow camino arrow here and there, but the Ruta has excellent signage so we are following that, and, of course, our GPS tracks. The trail is usually right along the ocean. Today (April 16) much of it went through what we called mini-moors on headlands. We saw heather (I think) and gorse and many other wild flowers. Lots of sun so water was blue. Quite a pretty hike. Most of it was country far from any houses. We did see a number of people out walking and others gathering something from the tide pools (mussels?).

We are staying in the tiny village of Rinlo. We didn’t have a lot of choice for accommodation. Our room is clean and quiet but beds aren’t great and we never did get any hot water for showers. Maybe almost sorta lukewarm. We were feeling a little down about that but it finally dawned on us that this was a clearly a first-world problem.

The hotel does have an excellent restaurant. We had some delicious scallops and then a large steaming hot pot of rice, lobster, prawn, crab, and clams, a dish that is a specialty of the town. We had to wait 30 minutes for them to prepare the dish but it was worth it. The restaurant was large and full and nearly everyone was having the rice dish.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ejgdwHQ9QghzaUKy6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TeBwUWdYFT56FFWk7

We saw a lot of beautiful things in the first 10 days. Here are my 42 favorites.

• 

I guess each area has their own poster, Ribadeo is the first town in Galicia on the Camino. I wonder if anyone has collected Semana Santa poster art into a book or analyzed how they have changed over the years.

• 

This was in Tapia. Kudos for celebrating an engineer and extra points for fitting the name in the street sign and making it look fairly natural. This rivals “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard” in Albuquerque (aka, by no one but me, King Street)

You may have noticed all the Hórreos photos coming up in the daily autogenerated slideshows. I got interested in them and started taking a photo of every one I passed. Camino walkers will know them from Galicia where they are also ubiquitous but rectangular. In Asturias they’re all square and there are a lot of them. Most houses in small towns have them but you rarely see them between towns. Their original purpose was to dry crops (out of the rain). They are built on stilts with wide plates partway up to prevent mice from climbing up. Here is a typical one:

• 

Surprisingly most of them are in poor shape.

• 

• 

This one is an extreme case of deferred maintenance.

• 

And they come in pairs.

• 

• 

And in playgrounds.

• 

And they have tiny ones.

• 

• 

As we got close to Galicia they suddenly disappeared. We saw a few of the rectangular type but made of bricks. More on Galicia horreos later.