Where there’s a will

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we stayed the night somewhat off route in a restored 300 year old farmhouse tucked secretively away deep in the Galician countryside. The night time silence was profound; we slept very well. That was fortunate as we had an 11 km route to follow in order to return to the main Camino. Once again the day dawned fine and the light was crystalline.

Because we were off route our information for this detour was sketchy and we quickly realised that there was a price to be paid for such indulgence! The roads were quiet, rough and very steep. After a plunging descent into a deep valley, accompanied by the sound of invisible but thunderous waterfalls below, the inevitable followed – we had to climb back out of the gorge. Because this was a very minor road the engineering left a little to be desired. We were back to high percentage gradients. I managed to stay in the saddle – just!

After over an hour we rejoined the Camino Frances at O Coto and the pilgrim stream was well underway; we estimated that there were small groups of walking pilgrims every ten metres or so. The advantage of this mass movement of humanity was the presence of many cafes and bars, so I quickly justified another coffee in return for the effort of getting to O Coto. We also liked the Santiago!

Although our GPX plot placed us on the actual Camino trail, we decided that was unfair to the walkers whom we’d be disturbing, as well as trying for us as we would be constantly warning them of our approach. So, we decided to remain on the main N547 road which runs parallel to the official Camino, and is very well engineered. It is also relatively quiet given the presence of a major motorway which takes the bulk of traffic, leaving the N road as a reasonably peaceful alternative with a fantastic margin for cyclists.

We were reminded of our friends, Dave and Carol, who have also cycled the Camino Frances on a tandem bicycle from Roncevalles to Santiago. Many of our forthcoming photos will be familiar to them!

Despite the constant undulations we arrived in Melide in good time for a second coffee and stopped at the same cafeteria that we stopped at 12 years ago on our first Camino!

Little did we appreciate then, as we do today, that Melide is where the Camino Primitivo officially joins the Camino Frances, although we followed an official variant yesterday to join it briefly in Palas de Rei. That explains why there are now so many pilgrims in evidence.

We also thought of our two new Camino friends, Mariana and Jean-Paul, whom we met back in Villaviciosa and who are walking the Camino del Norte. We have kept in daily touch with them as they face their own huge challenges on their chosen Way. They have left the ocean behind today to tackle the hills of Galicia and will be joining the Camino Frances either here or in Arzua. Their sore feet and legs will be powered along by the collective energy that now seems to permeate the route.

The tiny church of San Roque in Melide was reconstructed in 1969 from recovered elements but it has a wonderful portal and tympanum, dating back to the 14th century.

Even more arresting is the double-sided crucifix nearby which depicts Calvary, with the Virgin and St John, on one side and Christ in majesty on the other. It is the oldest wayside cross in Galicia.

Restored by coffee and a pastry we returned to the road for the final section of the day into Arzua. Our run ‘down’ into Santiago was once again very much up. Between Melide and Arzua we traversed five or more valleys but being on the major N road ensured that the gradients were reasonably comfortable.

Although we’d been climbing for a long time we didn’t think we’d quite made it to these heights!

We stopped in Arzua for a light and early lunch and it was surprisingly busy. Indeed it felt like the beginning of a fiesta. People were carrying single white or red flowers beautifully wrapped in cellophane, and intermittently aerial firecrackers were being launched. Then the church bells started up, not with the normal solemn call to Mass but a positive symphonic dissonance of every bell the church could muster. All was explained as the procession emerged from the plaza. We had completely lost track of the calendar and the local parish, indeed it seemed most of this small town, was participating in the Corpus Christi procession, complete with brass band and percussion. Whilst it was appropriately reverential there was also a palpable sense of joy being shared across the whole community. It made us ponder whether we, in Britain, have retained any such equivalent way of coming together in a shared celebration.

Lunch over we completed the final 2 kms to our resting place tonight and were astonished by what greeted us. On this trip, for the first time, we have used the services of a small company, S-Cape Travel, which is based in Asturias. They have provided all of the logistical support for us including GPX routing, taxi baggage transfers and, critically, accommodation. The standard of accommodation has varied enormously but never the quality. We have been in lovely hotels in the bigger cities and in pilgrim hostels in some of the remote places. We have experienced nothing but exceptional kindness and consideration.

This evening’s hotel, Pazo Santa Maria, is nothing short of spectacular. It sits on the edge of Arzua overlooking the Galician countryside and is a 300 year old farmhouse. It is filled with lovely antique furniture. It is going to be hard to persuade Linda to get back on her bike tomorrow!