Day 32

Via de la Plata

Saturday 28 April 2012

Day 32

 

Lubian to A Gudina. 26km

 

Each day just gets better, this was yet another contender for the best section. It was a climb again first thing to our second 'Spanish Munro', at 1262m the Portela da Canda was 67m lower than yesterday's ascent but much tougher. There were no easy sections of tarred road on this one, rough mountain track all the way with some places having us jumping and dancing from one stone or dry piece of grass to another as the recent rains turned the track into running stream. From Lubian we initially dropped into the valley and up to a beautiful little church, Santuario de la Virgen de la Tuiza, then it was a continuous climb to the pass. There had been more snow on the tops overnight which gave a wintery backdrop and there was even a smattering of white on the path. Surprisingly the weather was mild, there was no wind again, the sky was virtually cloudless and the effort to get to the top was making us sweat.

 

When we were about half way up we heard voices behind. We assumed that it was maybe other peregrinos who though they were up before us had gone to the bar for breakfast. Instead it was a group of walkers with just daypacks who we thought said they were making for Santiago. We guessed it was an organised tour and they had their bags transported. Later still more came along and one girl spoke English, they were from Ourense and had come by coach to

Lubian this morning and would be picked up later at A Gudina where we were heading. They were going to do it in stages like this over the coming weekends. Still more overtook us as we got closer to the pass and when we reached the Portela da Canda they were all congregated for a break. I thought they would be having a drink of water before continuing and would be jealous when they saw us having a coffee from our flask. No way! They were well organised and had a car there with supplies. A table had been prepared awaiting their arrival that was loaded with food and drink, we were invited to join them. There was hot coffee in large vacuum flasks, wine and bottled water, on the food side they had bread, cheese, jamon, salami, dry sausage, donuts, apples, oranges and bananas. They considered us genuine poor who needed feeding and kept forcing more and more food on us, I was absolutely full. Who said there was no such thing as a free lunch? It turned out now that they were also repainting the arrows from yellow spray canisters as they walked along. This meant that as we made our way down from the pass we had no problem with finding our way, the arrows were all freshly painted for us.

 

Over the pass we left Castilla y Leon and entered Galicia, the climate also seemed to change, it got milder and off came the ponchos and socks from our hands. It looked much greener and the snow had disappeared from the tops which were not so high. The rough rocky path of the ascent now became a relatively smooth wide track and not nearly as steep, allowing us a comfortable easy descent to the villages of A Canda and Vilavella, the later had an albergue in its old railway station. We had considered continuing here yesterday afternoon but now were glad we had stayed at Lubian, although only 12km it had been hard and taken almost three hours. We stopped for a break and had a drink of cool spring water from the fountain in the square.

 

It maintained its easy descent though the path was wet and flooded in places with the recent heavy rains, until the village of O Pereiro where we had a break for coffee. Then we began to climb again over moorland thick with heathers and spotted with pretty wild primroses. Every time we thought we were coming to the crest of the hill the path would take a turn and another hill would appear, it seemed to go on for ever. Eventually we came to a minor road and entered a very posh village, O Canizo, with nearly all the old houses converted into luxury mansions. It was now supposed to be only 3km to our overnight stop of A Gudina but when we reached the town sign on the main road it felt like another 3km before we made the town centre.

 

We didn't fancy another afternoon and evening with all these people who had caught with us yesterday. So instead of making for the albergue we got a room at the first hostal we came to. It was La Madrilena where we got a double room in this very clean small hotel, it only cost E30. We lay on the bed after showering and relaxed until dinner, we had got into our accommodation in time as the rain began. I watched some football and golf on the TV and Moira was able to read today's newspaper which she downloaded; they had WiFi.

 

We seem to be adapting to the Spanish eating times and had dinner in the bar at 8:00pm. It wasn't bad but the main course was peculiar, on the menu it was 'jamon asado' which we translated as roast ham. What we got was lots of thin slices of pork and two small potatoes, the Spanish don't go in for vegetables much either. What we had was fine as we weren't that hungry, after our large impromptu meal on the trail this morning. We got to bed early, it is a long walk tomorrow.