Our residence was in a three-story building overlooking the lake. We determined the quickest way out was down the hill to join the Camino, and were surprised to notice that we were just two blocks from the main bus stop. When we had first come in to town we stopped at the main bus stop, then wandered around for 6-7 blocks before finding our little hostel. I suppose that is the way it is in life--where you want to go isn't so far, if you just knew how to get there! Part of the "fun" is wandering around and finding where you are supposed to be.
We had some hopes as we descended the steep hill and crossed the bridge out of town that it was going to turn out nice. We met an old friend crossing the bridge and hoped he would travel with us. He didn't stay long!
We crossed the bridge, and just as it had been a steep descent into Portomarin, so it was a steep climb through a pine forest going out of town. But the trail was smooth and comfortable, if a bit steep, and we rationalized that an early morning cardio was good for us. We were rewarded with a few good views over our shoulder of Portomarin behind us:
We had a bit of light drizzle on and off but we finally got to our first stop which was almost at the halfway point. It was just about 10:30 and we were feeling good about our progress when we stopped for coffee and a bathroom break in Gonzar. It was one of the busiest bar\cafes we had stopped in and the stamp for our credentials was self service. Seems there are many different ways to serve the same kind of coffee, but I enjoyed a simple espresso this morning:
After a nice rest, we strapped back on our belly bags, repositioned our hats and jackets and started out. We hadn't been gone from Gonzar long when it began to drizzle again. Then the drizzle turned to rain and we had a long slog up a steep hill towards Sierra Ligonde, the highest point on the day's march. It wasn't a lot of fun, but it didn't do to complain!
We stopped for lunch just before the peak of the trail, which was at 720 meters, a climb of over 400 meters since leaving Portomarin. There were a couple of small bar\restaurants in the small village of Ventas de Naron so we crowded in with a bunch of other pilgrims into the small dry space, leaving the tables on the plaza out in the drizzle. Sharon had a bowl of soup that would have been right at home in Portugal and I ordered a tuna omelette as a sandwich. It was a gigantic bocadillo and our meal helped to revive and rejuvenate us both.
We had wifi at the little tavern, so checked in on Facebook and consulted Google Maps for the remaining distance. It said we were just 2.5 miles, or 50 minutes walking distance. That was like doing the farmroad, we comforted ourselves! We would be there in no time. We should know better than that by now!
We still had to crest the hill and had quite a few ups and downs before then. When we got to the high point, a couple of Spanish pilgrims were about to take a picture and I offered to take one of the two of them together, so they posed in front of the kilometer marker. They insisted on repaying us by taking our picture, so here it is and you may be able to tell how far we were from Santiago at this stage of the game:
We slogged on through more agricultural farmlands, and we saw many chicken houses, some corn just beginning to grow, and a farmer splitting wood for the winter--or perhaps for this evening!
At long last we made it to Ligonde, a tiny hamlet whose only claim to fame in our mind was that it adjoined Eirexe, the village where we had a room reserved for the night. As we exited Ligonde, we could see the road making a big curve that would take it in to Eirexe, but the uniquitous yellow arrow suddenly pointed down what looked like a step, rocky bottomed arroyo. It was only a quarter of a mile before it rejoined the road, but it was the second-worst part of the trail we had seen, and it wasn't helped any by the rain!
But soon enough we were finding our hostel for the night. There was a bit of panic when we inquired about our bags, which we had shipped early that morning from Portomarin. The lady in the hostel said the transport service had come by but left no bags with her. Visions of living in one set of clothes for the rest of the trip made us a bit worried, but I asked if she would call the service and she said she would. When she came back from making the call, she had learned that the bags had been delivered to the bar across the street. I hurried over and found both of them leaning just inside the front entrance.
We were were happy to have our bags and to discover that it was warm in the bar since the kitchen was open to the service area. After carrying our backpacks over to our room, we wandered over for our afternoon coffee and it was the first time all day since getting out of bed that we were warm!
When we got back to our room, I opened the window and took a peek out. Oh great, we're in the country! Look who we have pecking away right under our window!
I hoped there wasn't a rooster out there also, but just to be on the safe side, I would extract my revenge in advance before turning in for the night. We dropped back across the street and here is what I had for the main course:
Chicken on a stick, can't beat it! In the land of chicken houses, you can't go too wrong with ordering chicken for the meal. And when I took the first bite, I knew it wasn't squid or octopus because.....it tasted like chicken!
We were quite pleased with ourselves when we got back to our room and opened up the guidebook and noticed that we had put in just over 17 kilometers today. That was over 10 miles, mostly uphill and mostly in the rain! We deserved a good night of sleep. As someone had shared the temperature back home, we tried not to think how cold we were as we got ready to climb under the heavy woolen blankets. It had been quite a day!
We made our reservations for tomorrow night to stay in Ponterroxan just beyond Palas de Rei. We should have an easy day of walking, as it will only be about six miles total, and we will ship our backpacks on ahead of us.
Forecast for tomorrow: rain, with an overnight low of 54 and a high of 70 degrees. Another beautiful day ahead, for us penguins!
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