Thursday 5 July 2018

El Camino: Meson do Vento to Segueiro


We woke to a very misty morning with poor visibility but it wasn't long before it cleared. I looked at the guide book before leaving and discovered that the hotel we were staying at tonight was 5km further than the town of Siguiero which meant we would be walking over 33km today, about 17 or 18 miles.



We had to walk a couple of miles from the hotel before we were back on El Camino.
Our first waymarker of the day showed we had less than 40km to Santiago so, although today would be a long walk, we should be in Santiago by lunchtime tomorrow.


These stone crosses or cruceiros are placed at crossroads or near chapels, churches and cemeteries. It is said the crosses protect travellers. This one was next to the church of San Pedro in Cabeza de Lobo.




I don't know what happened today but Steve was looking very smart, even coordinated










A very unusual piece of garden furniture.
Looking through the slats of this horreo you could see the sweet corn. Strangely this is used to feed the cattle and is not for human consumption.Most houses grow their own vegetables in their gardens.



After about an hour's walking we passed a sculpture park by the side of the road with this giant statue of St James.









The mojority of the grain stores we passed had a cross on the top.


















A scallop shell weathervane.







Potatoes form a major part of the diet in this part of Spain.



There were lots of people walking on the route today. Tina was taking a photo of Marie and Jonathan who were staying in the same hotels as us. We were usually ahead of them but  would catch up with them  for a chat in the evening.


We always met up with the same groups of people. There were many Spaniards on the route as well as Italian, Irish , German, Dutch and English nationalities.




I became fascinated by the different designs and sizes of these horreos.



The sun was finally showing its face so at this cafe we treated ourselves to an ice cream, a magnum to be precise.




















We continued through the village passing this church with a gruesome 18th century statue of a child being martyred. 









Our lunch stop was the cafe Cruceiro run by an English woman and her Spanish husband. As far as we know this is the last main cafe before we get to our hotel which is about 13 kms away.
We didn't stop for long - just enough time for a sandwich, tea and toilet.

The walk ahead of us was mainly on hard paved paths again. This was not what we expected. We had imagined it would be on dirt tracks hence the boots.









This brightly painted  house stood out from the rest























Tempted but we stayed on the path.


Spotted a few people working the land by hand.


We were now on the road into the main town of Segueiro, passing through the industrial estate.





The route took us through a small park






Then through the outskirts of Segueiro,  joining up with other pilgrims. It was a large town and with just 16 km to Santiago I couldn't understand why we were not staying in a hotel in the town but no our hotel was  5 km away. But on apositive note it meant we would have just 9 km to walk tomorrow on our final leg.























Crossed the river to take us out of the town.
We finally had blue sky and sunshine.

A beautiful meadow just overflowing with wild flowers.







We made good time and were at the hotel by 4pm.

It was on a dual carriageway and required some speedy footwork to get across the road.











It was a lovely hotel and seemed to be run by one man. He did everything. Signed us in at reception, served us at the bar, cooked our evening meal and then served it!! It was the best meal we had eaten so far with Palma ham and melon to start, fish (hake, of course) and potatoes and almond cake for dessert. I had a gin and tonic afterwards and he must have poured a quarter of the bottle into my glass. I slept well that night.

10 comments:

  1. It sounds like the dinner was worth the long day!

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  2. The churches all look to be of a similar style. The horreos are interesting.

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  3. That was a long walk. I bet that contributed to sleeping well!
    Believe it or not I had my first gin and tonic last night. We were on the penthouse level here to watch the fireworks from up there. Hostess was making gin and tonic. I had her go light on the gin. I think I liked the lime part the best.

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  4. The more I see you walking the more I get tired ! Apparently there are lots of Belgians who do that too, for religious purposes ! Today is football again Belgium against Brazil and the streets are packed, I better stay home !

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  5. It does sound like it was a long day, but it ended well, and tomorrow you arrive at the end! :-)

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  6. Tell Steve I say he has a snappy sense of attire.

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  7. Such a long day but tomorrow should be a piece of cake. It doesn't seem like it should be over but I am sure you are ready.

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  8. That was a long day. I'm sure the gin and tonic helped with the sleeping!

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  9. Your group all seem to be physically fit ---to walk that much every day for many days... WOW--I'm impressed.... Your dinner (after a long day) sounded good. Bet you did sleep well.. ha

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  10. That WAS a great day -- and a lot of miles. Dinner sounds excellent and the one man doing everything like something out of a 19th Century novel!!

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