Author: Wynette

Well, the main thing you can say about today is that it was all downhill. Ha ha. It was a beautiful walk and beautiful weather after we got out of the early morning wind. But both of us were ready for it to be done. It was a constant downhill, sometimes quite steep. Both of us had sore sore feet at the end.

Charlie’s track showed we descended a little over 2000 feet. So not quite as bad as hiking down from Sandia Crest to the La Luz trailhead but there were fewer switchbacks! (Like none.)

Our friend Henry asked in a comment yesterday: “Out of curiosity, how many hours do you actually walk? I imagine that the gung-ho younger walkers cover 5.8 miles in about 2 hours or a little more, though probably all they see are their feet. Do you make it a four hour stroll + coffee stops and a stop for lunch, or is your late lunch stop the end of your walking day?”

Well, Charlie keeps a track of each day’s walking using an app called Wikiloc. So, Henry, it’s easy to answer your question with those tracks. Here are stats for our last 3 days of walking.

Thursday, March 24: 6.1 miles, 4 hours and 48 minutes total, 2 hours and 29 minutes moving time.

Wednesday, March 23: 5.8 miles, 3 hours and 40 minutes total, 2 hours and 6 minutes moving time.

Tuesday, March 22: 7.1 miles, 4 hours and 20 minutes total, 2 hours and 37 minutes moving time.

We do stop at least once for breakfast and again for coffee if we find an open bar (doesn’t always happen). So, you can see, it’s pretty leisurely. We’ve been arriving to our day’s destination with plenty of time to check into our night’s lodging, rest a little, and then go out for lunch. Our favorite time for lunch is around 3 or 3:30 and then we are pretty much done with eating for the day. (Yesterday was an exception when we had a group dinner with two other pilgrims at the albergue.)

Those actual walking times are Charlie’s. Sometimes he gets a little ahead of me and waits for me to catch up and the app stops counting that moving time. So, my moving time is longer than Charlie’s.

Charlie is a stronger/faster walker than I am. When we were planning our first Camino, we both assumed he’d get way ahead of me and then we’d join up at some point. But it’s turned out that we stay together pretty much all the time because we like to walk together and see things together and talk about things. Charlie’s been very patient with me over the years.

Also, Charlie carries more than 2/3 of our weight so that slows him down a little and allows me to keep up better.

It was a cold and windy walk today. I’m not sure why, but we didn’t mind too much. Uh, well, maybe because we only walked 5.8 miles. We heard from our friend Henry and my mom Berniece that it snowed 2 inches in Albuquerque last night!! So warmer here than there. If I had been home I would have been too wimpy to go out in the cold, even for my usual 2 mile walk. That’s one thing I love about the Camino.

We have another lovely place to stay this afternoon and tonight. A private room in an albergue. Casa Nuñez (aka A Reboleira) in Fonfría. We will have a group meal tonight. There are only 2 others staying here that we know about so far. Most people at this point carry on walking to Triacastela where we will walk to tomorrow.

This room is typical in that it is costing us 40 euros, or 20 euros each. People here pay 12 euros each for the dormitory in the albergue where a number of people share a room with bunk beds. These private rooms are quite a deal. They also include a private bathroom.

Galicia is the northwest region in Spain, just above Portugal. We are now walking in Galicia. We had mentioned before that if you contract covid in Galicia, all your medical bills will be covered. I found this brochure (photo below) in today’s Albergue that says they will also cover expenses for repatriation and for a stay required by a quarantine! We have to get a covid test before returning to the US. We are thinking we should get one before we leave Galicia because if it should turn out to be positive, this is THE place to be.

There are other reasons to come here. It is a beautiful place to visit. It’s green and lush. Not what you probably think of when you think of Spain. It’s been compared to Ireland and it shares Celtic roots with Ireland. (Bagpipes are not uncommon.) (Charlie says they are all too common in Santiago.) Galicia’s northern and western border is the Atlantic Ocean. Innumerable beaches and gorgeous shore line. Wonderful cities and towns.

We walked into a tiny town this morning, hoping the one bar would be open for breakfast, and heard quite loud music. We thought “gosh, is that coming from the bar?” But no, it was some outdoor workers who had brought music with them. I don’t think this man minded that I took a video of him enjoying the music (might take a minute to load, hang in here till you see him really get going dancing, you might have to click start):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yryBHEpqYKZ17qEo9

Just across the street some other men were laying flat stones to build quite a pretty wall.

Unfortunately, the bar was not open. We kept walking and two miles later found one that was open. Shortly after we got there it filled up with pilgrims! We are starting to see lots of fellow peregrinos.

We had a pleasant day of walking. We walked a little over 7 miles. All in a green valley beside a big mountain stream, through a number of charming villages. We stopped once for breakfast and again for coffee. Even though it was a mostly gray day and rained off and on, very light rain, it was one of our favorite days of walking. We walked from Trabadelo to Las Herrerías. At Las Herrerías, we stopped at a bar and asked the owner if he would call a taxi for us. The taxi driver took us to where we are tonight, Liñares. The taxi driver took us through O Cebreiro which is a high point on the Camino. He took us the way the bicycles would go on this climb. We walked this climb back in 2013 and decided to by-pass it this time. This is one of the prettiest areas on the Camino, if not THE prettiest. Our taxi driver was great and suggested we stop several places so we could take photos. He invited me to sit up front so I’d have a good view out and I got to chat with him in castellano, which is what everyone around here calls Spanish. He was a kind, soft-spoken man.

We had a good time in A Coruña, and good weather. By Friday we had decided we’d head back to the Camino when our time there was up. So this morning, we took a bus back to Villafranca del Bierzo, where we left off before, had a cup of coffee, and then started walking the 6 miles to Trabadelo where we are staying tonight. We got here just in time for a late lunch. The cook here is excellent. We had one of her lunches in 2013 on our first Camino and never forgot it. Today we had the menu del día and chose the trout. “Trucha” in español. It was delicious. For those who live in New Mexico, you might know the town in Northern New Mexico named “Truchas”, or “Trouts”. I’m sure many good trouts have been eaten around there, too. We walked along a large clear stream most of today. It’s flowing just outside our room. If it were summer I bet we would have gone out and done some wading.

It’s cooler here than it was in A Coruña but not as cold as it was when we left a week ago. Actually perfect walking weather. Mostly cloudy with sun peeking out every once in a while. We are glad to be back on the Camino.

These are some photos I wanted to share. They are totally unrelated except they were all taken in A Coruña.

Our Airbnb host, Margarita, suggested we might enjoy visiting Monte San Pedro, a high hill northwest of A Coruña with great views of the city. We did that this afternoon. Took a bus to the base of the hill and then walked to the top of the hill (a steep 20 minute walk). It did have great views of the city and the Atlantic. After hanging out there for a while (it’s also a park), we walked back down and then home along the ocean front. About an hour walk. So, trying to stay in shape for the Camino.