One version of this trip had us walking the Camino dos Faros (lighthouses). This is a new path along the Atlantic. It’s not considered a pilgrimage to Santiago. It goes along the coast starting about 40 miles west of A Coruna, goes to Muxia, then down to Finisterre. The people who laid it out tried to stay as close to the coast as possible at all times, usually within a few hundred feet. Since we were in Muxia we decided to start walking this camino from Muxia going east/north. It goes right by where we are staying. We wanted to get a taste of it so we can decide if we want to walk the whole thing another year.
We walked in crazy weather. It started out partly cloudy. We stopped and talked to an older man in a cluster of houses we passed. He was even older than we are, aged 82. He was carrying an umbrella. He was wise, five minutes later we felt drops, then more drops, we got out the rain coats. Then it rained even harder so we put on the rain skirts. Then it started sleeting. We pushed on and it got better and we stopped at a bar for coffee. They didn’t have food but we saw a restaurant Casa Carmela on the map in two miles and the Google rating was 4.6/5.0 stars. We called to see if it was open and Carmela said it was, so we set out for it. The weather was nicer and we took off the rain gear.
We imagined Casa Carmela would be a bigger place and we walked past it, not recognizing it as a restaurant. Carmela saw us and came out and led us back. A small place 4-5 tables, no one else there. No menu, you just pick seafood, fish, or meat and Carmela makes it for you. We choose a seafood mixture and fish. She took our order and then went back and started cooking. As you might guess, since we are telling the story, everything was extremely good.
We went on for another mile or so to the next lighthouse. Then we called a taxi it take us home.
Overall it was a great day, actually a typical camino day for us, we walked 6.7 miles, moving speed 2.5 mph, lots of breaks. The trail and views were great. The Camino dos Faros is definitely on our list now.
Tomorrow we plan to taxi to where we stopped today, walk another 6-7 miles and taxi home. On Saturday we are going to walk west on the Faros for 6-7 miles. So our “cafetería” camino is going to end with three days on the Faros.
I’ve been thinking about your supposedly slow pace. It isn’t slow at all. Quite average. I’ve done some timings recently. When I go for my morning walk, when I walk with Moira, so as to adjust my pace to hers, it is 2.5mph essentially on the flat, as the walk is through our neighborhood. When I do my standard UNM north golf course walk by myself, I try to step up the pace a bit so I can pretend I’m doing serious exercise: 3.0+ a bit mph. When I hike on the La Luz Crossing Trail (Tramway trail #82) I really push. It is my serious exercise walk. But due to the terrain I average a smidge under 2.5 mph, no matter how hard I push. I’m actually very consistent: my time to the turnaround point (2.46 miles) varies by less than two minutes.
Your pace isn’t slow at all; you just make a lot of stops to smell… the coffee.
No our pace isn’t slow, pretty average. But we don’t keep it up all that long, 2-3 hours of actually walking instead of the 6-7 of typical pilgrims. But, as you noted, we leave no flower or coffee unsmelled. ?