alansykes
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Except the Francés
Just coming up to the last stages of this year's wonderful camino. Crossing Padornelo, the highest point (?1360m) of the Vía del la Plata, was an experience this year.
On Friday night I stayed for the first time in Requejo. Normally Puebla de Sanabria, 10km earlier, has more attractions, but there was a heavy fall of snow on Thursday night, and I thought I should get as close to the high passes as possible, so that I could turn back in good time if necessary.
Requejo is a friendly, helpful place, with a basic but decent municipal albergue (and several private alternatives). The sidewalks had about 4" of snow on Friday night, and I think I was probably warned by roughly 50% of its population not to think of trying the camino on Saturday, but to stick to the road.
Any temptation to ignore the advice evaporated several km before the summit, when the clouds dropped to 1100m or so, so I wouldn't have got the breathtaking views back east and forward west from the top of some previous years, which might just have made up for collapsing in a snowdrift and being eaten by wolves. So it was through the tunnel and on to the very cosy truckstop near Padornelo village for well earned coffee and tostada. The snow, and cloud, deminished downwards from Padornelo, although I did see wolf footprints, including one set going in the same direction as deer tracks, which I didn't think boded well for the latter.
Last time, two years ago, the camino was closed by AVE work and you had to walk 7km or more of serpentining tarmac to cover the 2km of beautiful track across from Aciberos to Lubián. This year was a bit better, as they've put a track on grass (grass and snow on Saturday) that gets you to Lubián in about 4km, with some of the beautiful ancient waterways alongside you. But it's not like the wonderful green tunnel that the camino used to follow, and which has probably been destroyed forever by the train.
From Lubián back up to A Canda there was little snow, and by 4pm I was in Galicia having caldo galego in the Porta Galego hostal in Vilavella, perfectly acceptable room for 20€.
One of my favourite stages of any camino is the section between A Gudiña and Campobecerros, and this year it's back almost to its previous state, without being forced off the road by AVE dump trucks every 2 minutes. The traffic is slightly worse that in 2010, but it's not that bad. And they are making an amazing effort to cover up their mess - I was quite impressed to see a thick layer of topsoil being plastered over the tunnel waste sites, and trees being planted on top.
And the view on both sides once you get up to the Vendas, especially on a cloudless perfect crisp winter day like yesterday, just wonderful. On my first time, in 2010, some of the hamlets were faintly reminiscent of scenes from Buñuel's Las Hurdes, with grinding poverty and subsistence farming, but the CAP's attempts to push subsidies uphill seem to be working, and there were lots of smart new roofs, several cars less than 30 years old, some casas rural, and many of the people looked as if they had not only heard of hot water but quite enjoyed using it, even some nice looking young people, unlike my first time when there seemed to be nobody much under 50. Quite a transformation.
I stayed in the Nuñez bar/hostal in Campobecerros, where there is even a choice in what to eat in the evening. I think I preferred it before, but as I had the sopa and the cocido like everybody else it didn't make much difference.
On Friday night I stayed for the first time in Requejo. Normally Puebla de Sanabria, 10km earlier, has more attractions, but there was a heavy fall of snow on Thursday night, and I thought I should get as close to the high passes as possible, so that I could turn back in good time if necessary.
Requejo is a friendly, helpful place, with a basic but decent municipal albergue (and several private alternatives). The sidewalks had about 4" of snow on Friday night, and I think I was probably warned by roughly 50% of its population not to think of trying the camino on Saturday, but to stick to the road.
Any temptation to ignore the advice evaporated several km before the summit, when the clouds dropped to 1100m or so, so I wouldn't have got the breathtaking views back east and forward west from the top of some previous years, which might just have made up for collapsing in a snowdrift and being eaten by wolves. So it was through the tunnel and on to the very cosy truckstop near Padornelo village for well earned coffee and tostada. The snow, and cloud, deminished downwards from Padornelo, although I did see wolf footprints, including one set going in the same direction as deer tracks, which I didn't think boded well for the latter.
Last time, two years ago, the camino was closed by AVE work and you had to walk 7km or more of serpentining tarmac to cover the 2km of beautiful track across from Aciberos to Lubián. This year was a bit better, as they've put a track on grass (grass and snow on Saturday) that gets you to Lubián in about 4km, with some of the beautiful ancient waterways alongside you. But it's not like the wonderful green tunnel that the camino used to follow, and which has probably been destroyed forever by the train.
From Lubián back up to A Canda there was little snow, and by 4pm I was in Galicia having caldo galego in the Porta Galego hostal in Vilavella, perfectly acceptable room for 20€.
One of my favourite stages of any camino is the section between A Gudiña and Campobecerros, and this year it's back almost to its previous state, without being forced off the road by AVE dump trucks every 2 minutes. The traffic is slightly worse that in 2010, but it's not that bad. And they are making an amazing effort to cover up their mess - I was quite impressed to see a thick layer of topsoil being plastered over the tunnel waste sites, and trees being planted on top.
And the view on both sides once you get up to the Vendas, especially on a cloudless perfect crisp winter day like yesterday, just wonderful. On my first time, in 2010, some of the hamlets were faintly reminiscent of scenes from Buñuel's Las Hurdes, with grinding poverty and subsistence farming, but the CAP's attempts to push subsidies uphill seem to be working, and there were lots of smart new roofs, several cars less than 30 years old, some casas rural, and many of the people looked as if they had not only heard of hot water but quite enjoyed using it, even some nice looking young people, unlike my first time when there seemed to be nobody much under 50. Quite a transformation.
I stayed in the Nuñez bar/hostal in Campobecerros, where there is even a choice in what to eat in the evening. I think I preferred it before, but as I had the sopa and the cocido like everybody else it didn't make much difference.