Made an early start at 7 after hot coffee, bread and a piece of chocolate for a really interesting walk, to Lugo this time. The morning was wonderful. We went uphill to a lovely sanctuary, Nuestra Señora del Carmen, which had a long spread of wild garden down the hill with streams and little ponds and old trees. Idyllic. A very peaceful place, which St James the Apostle (Santiago) visited and walked. Over the past days I´ve thought, "St James, one of Jesus´s best friends walked here" and it was becoming more and more part of every step. It was a pretty route to Vilabade where the church was sadly closed - it was once a franciscan monastery way back in 1457. We sat on benches by spring flowers and breathed it all in. Pressing on, we arrived at Castroverde where we stopped for coffee (it´s a really friendly town) before visiting the Tower dedicated to the Altamiras. Met a photographer there by chance who was taking pics promoting the Jacobean Way. He took some of us for his mag before moving on.
We seemed to go all the way round Castroverde before finding our way out! The walk was delightful, going past bubbling streams, mysterious caves with locked doors (were there underground tunnels from Castroverde´s church to here??), immense trees, pretty paths and little bridges, slabs of rock that looked like mossy tombstones, primroses, meadows full of daisies and buttercups, lambs, calves, and a buzzard soaring overhead (shown) ... many robins, finches and blackbirds in the trees and undergrowth amongst others. A true delight.
We also saw a house named "Casa Lucas" (pic taken for pilgrim Lucas who wants to do this route). At one point, very thirsty, we arrived at a place called Souto de Torres where we came across a coffee and goodie m/c!! It was a real surprise so we stopped there for a fill-up break of course. We then continued walking through lovely countryside for hours until, in the rain by then, we became bogged down in mud and had to take the main road. Just a few kms before entering Lugo. My feet were throbbing madly, we´d been walking all day and I didn´t want to go to a city, however interesting it might be. My light rucksack (I only took 5 kgs approx) felt like I´d packed it with a ton of stones, and just walking on tarmac made my feet burn despite good leather boots, I was done in, so..... moving to one side on the grass, I sat down and burst into tears!!!! Mika nearly filmed me "at breaking point" as we knew it would come sometime. The route is sometimes very hard and it´s daily. Luckily, my guardian angel of the day, the photographer from the Tower pics, who was going to Lugo, pulled over in his car to see how we were as I didn´t look good. He decided a lift the last few kms to the city a good idea. Yes! I thank that man.
This gave us time to visit Lugo after a little rest. We walked round the ancient Roman Wall and visited the beautiful cathedral (shown), then went to a bar for a very good reasonable meal. The men´s loo was a trifle odd (Mika took a pic)...
I liked old Lugo and it´s Plaza and statues of Cesar Augustus, eagles and churches. Could have spent a day there but saving feet for the next day more important. After a quick shop for food for tomorrow, it was back to the albergue (up a steep hill in town). The albergue was standard for Galicia, €5 pp: lots of bunk beds in a large room, reasonable showers, clean.
Loading...
5:44
Camino primitivo de Santiago 2010by lrubioc1,766 views
Link to this comment:
All Comments (0)