The Way of Saint James via Camino Francè

Day 45 – Venta de Narón to Casanova

A quiet sleepy Spanish village.

In the photo that yellow thing laying on the road in front of the tractor is a dog, sound asleep. The only sounds in this village this Sunday morning is the chickens.  We pass lots of dogs on the Camino. Almost always and no matter what breed, they are sound asleep draping themselves over rocks, or mounds of grass, stoops and tree stumps, or their favorite just laying in the road. Limp as noodles just sawing logs. They never give pilgrims a second look or even a first look. They just ignore us. Watch dogs they are not. What they do for a living I can’t even guess. But seeing them like that, so calm and carefree, makes me want to live a Spanish dogs life.

Some of the people live a simple life too. This Senora was gathering chestnuts on the street and trying to sell them to pilgrims, without much luck. Well, we had been getting pelted with chestnut pods falling out of the trees for the last 50 kilometers. Sometimes the path is so thick with those large furry chestnut pods it’s like walking on a firm mattress. And, bless her heart,  Senora wants to make a living selling them to us.

We get pelted with enormous amounts of acorns too, just falling out of the trees lining the path. Sometimes the path is so thick with crushed and stepped on acorns that the path is smooth almost like walking on coarse saw dust. But other things grow along the path too like this beautiful toadstool. We’ve never seen anything like it.  Nancy says it has heart shapes decorating its dome.

Weve entered a part of Galicia that has eucalyptus trees. They are not native but so well suited to the climate here that are a matter of Galician pride   We don’t have a photo of them up close but they grow 50 to 70 feet tall with bark that falls off in long strips, and the trunks are straight like telephone poles. The above picture has nothing to do with eucalyptus but is a really nice rebuildable ruins that we found while looking for a place to well, take a leak.

Its Sunday (Domingo) and we found Mass at Melide, a larger town along the Way.  We had to hustle the last couple of kilometers to get there for the 12:30 Mass, making it with 30 minutes to spare. This photo isn’t it but a church dedicated to St James in Boente, a village further on.

We stopped to rest at a wayside fruit stand selling fresh, ripe, red raspberries.  One of the women was harvesting the raspberries and chuckled as I took her picture.

We got to Casanova eventually and called the albergue to come pick us up. Our lodging was 2 1/2 km off the trail. It was a very nice hacienda in the middle of nowhere. Very Spanish but rebuilt with modern luxuries which we enjoyed. After a perigrino supper we relaxed in our room. Cell service was weak so posting was out of the question. We were too tired anyway.

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1. Day 44 – Mercadoiro to Venta de Narón

This day was very tough. We haven’t had such long down and uphills since last Saturday with a long arduous ‘up’ to O Cebreiro. And we opted to ride horses for that one. This day was 17 or 18 kilometers with a rise of 1,200 feet from Portomarín. Well, as the Romans said, “vini vidi vici”.  Going up we knew from our elevation maps of the entire 800 kilometers that this was the last hard day we would face. There will be more ups and downs but nothing like this one.

We passed a stone marker near Venta de Narón that looked like a graffiti artists canvas. But you can just make out a stone engraving that we were 78.1 km from Santiago then. Yea! for us! The end is in sight with the toughest walking challenges overcome.

Portomarín is a ‘new’ city. The old village lay beside Rio Encoro Dos Peares, a river running north and south through Galicia. A system of dams backs up spring snow melt from the mountains and uses the water to generate electricity. Like the town of Milford the village had to be moved. Their church was moved after numbering each stone but it was put back together only after a lot of chin scratching according to Nancy’s guidebook. A new bridge was built. The old bridge is too low and is underwater in the spring.

The day started out cool and muggy, overcast, and a slight mist. We saw hardly any of the thousands of new hikers starting from Sarria yesterday.  That day the path was busy and crowded. They probably had gone on to Portomarín since there were few albergues elsewhere on the trail. So a new herd of Sarria starters will be a day behind us. Yea! again because we have the trail back mostly to ourselves. Early in the day we spotted an ivy draped tree stump that some perigrinos put rocks on top of. That rock piling fetish gets a little extreme sometimes but it was funny.

Another thing some pilgrims do is build crosses to decorate with worn out hiking gear and paper with messages for friends following behind, or prayer notes. Sometimes these are well done as is this one a few miles up the mountain past Portomarín.

Near Castromaior the path turned bright yellow. Newly paved with some kind of crushed yellow stone. We walked this singing ‘We’re off to see the wizard’ for awhile.

The yellow gravel pooped out after just two kilometers or so but it was fun. Nancy said that tomorrow we will have been gone two months. We plan to be in Santiago in five more days on the Way. I think we will be glad.

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Day 43 – Sarria to Mercadoiro

See if you can find the hen in this photo.

We were looking forward to today. We will soon be within the last 100 km to Santiago. From here out we have to get two sellos per day (verification stamps in our pilgrim credential books) in order to receive what is called a Compostela in Santiago. A Compostela is a signed official document that you earn by walking the last 100 km, proven by your credential stamps.

The walk today will be urban out of Sarria for a kilometer or two then through a string of hamlets and villages. Cows share the trails in Galicia. One thing very different  in this region is farming. Lots of corn and vegetables are grown here. There are large orchards. Today it was apple orchards. The trail was lined with them and with chestnut trees. But the biggest change is in the farm houses. The farmers live over the barns in the same old stone buildings as their herds of cows.
The cows are driven from pasture to barn and pasture to pasture on the Camino paths. It’s wise to watch where you are stepping and everywhere is the aroma of cow poop, especially around the barn/homes. I wish I could get a picture of the farm women. They wear dark gray work dresses with white aprons and with white scarves on their heads. Seems to be a common uniform for them. The men wear soiled boots, grimy blue jeans, and stained checkered shirts. All look sun and work hardened.

Our ‘church of the day’ had a great view of a wide picturesque valley from its vantage point high on a hillside. It was beautifully maintained inside and the outside was showing its centuries very gracefully.

Our albergue is in the remote countryside near a small village. Quiet. But the accommodations are top notch. Tomorrow we cross a huge river at Portomarin.

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