One More Sleep – Silleda to Outeiro

Friday, June 8th, 2018

My walk today was excellent. Beautiful scenery, a good, solid 24 km of rural farms and villages set on hills and in valleys with mostly blue skies and sun. Only one short thunderstorm in the last hour of walking. It was also reasonably warm – I had my jacket off when walking for the first time since the last sunny day we had. When was that? I don’t remember.

It is amazing what the nicer weather does for one’ morale. I took just about as long to walk the 24 km today as I did the 28 km yesterday, but I don’t feel nearly as defeated, despite the more challenging climbs today. I did have several breaks at bars – we are quite close to Santiago now and civilization and so more bars and cafes.

I arrive in Santiago tomorrow and today put me in the right state of mind. I am all too ready to finish this rainy camino, but now I am less miserable about it – even if it should rain all the 17 km to the Cathedral tomorrow. Today reminded me how wonderful it is to walk through the Spanish countryside, listening to the birds and enjoying nature.

This picture shows the hills and valleys that was the challenge today. We walked in the first valley to the right (north–west?), for quite a while before tackling the valley beyond.

I can’t imagine having bread delivered to the bus shelter across the road from your house, but I am guessing that is the case. The little metal bus shelter was across the road from a little house at an intersection of 2 farm roads. Little trucks drive up and down the country roads delivering bread daily. Sometimes the houses have a little box mounted by the mailbox marked “pan” (bread)-this one did not. Other times the delivery person just honks and out comes the Mrs to make her selection from the loaves in the truck. I presume the Mrs wasn’t answering the honk so the bread person left her usual order hanging here out of the rain.

I am loving the cactuses, succulents and palm trees, which are becoming common. I saw a citrus tree orchard today.

This is the second valley we descended and of course, next comes the ascent on the other side.

This view is looking back at the valleys we crossed this morning.

There are very few pilgrims. These two I passed off and on all morning. These plus the 3 young guys I caught up to this afternoon, were the only Pilgrims I saw walking. Here in the albergue there are the class of kids which I have been shadowing and only 6 others.

There are so few pilgrims walking that the paths are not well trodden. I had noticed that the grass on the paths we had been walking since Ourense was recently mowed. Not so today – it was awful walking through the wet high grass on some of the paths.

I stopped in Bandeira at the Hotel Victorino – a lovely little place where I got huevos frito (fried eggs). When the owner found out I was from Canada, she was really excited and explained that she lived there for 5 years when she was 18.

Eucalyptus are really messy trees, they seem to shed their bark. Lots of these forests on the walk today and evidence of logging and sawmills in action.

Ponte Ulla is at the bottom of this valley, shown here at the point of the Ulla Viaduct. This viaduct is 117 metres high and spans 630 metres. When it opened in 2012 it was the tallest high speed railway bridge in the world. Yes, we had to descend to the bottom of the valley and come back up the other side.

This is the bridge at the bottom of the valley which connects to the little village of Ponte Ulla. 4 km up the other side of the valley is the albergue at Outeiro.

I was glad it wasn’t raining yet as I went up the initial steep climb. This would in short order become a river.

I haven’t posted pictures of these before but they are everywhere in Galicia. They are called hórreos and are used to store grains.

At last, the albergue. A thunderstorm started when I was half way up the hill, so on went the rain gear! The albergue is in a lovely setting at the top of the valley with a gorgeous view from all the wonderful glass walls. It has a well equipped kitchen and nice common areas. There is even a foot bath in the yard. The rooms are not so crowded with beds (the albergue sleeps 32) and the bedrooms have a wonderful view as well. And a washer and dryer! Not that I will be washing anything since I finish walking tomorrow!

While almost all day, the skies above me were blue, most of the day it looked like it was raining “over there”. It stayed “over there”, until late afternoon. I don’t know what this kind of cloud this is called, but it looked like a rainbow was blended into it.

Here is the link to the next blog from my 2018 Camino. I arrive in Santiago de Compostela!