Well, the last 2 days - A Rua to Quiroga on Saturday, and Quiroga to Monforte yday, have absolutely splendid. I’ve loved every moment (maybe not that last uphill before reaching Quiroga
)
I LOVED walking high above the Sil on Friday, and then climbing up high into the hills yday. There’s something about climbing where the pay off of the views, and the feeling that you get when it’s only been made possible by your spirit and strength, make it all worthwhile.
Lots of movements of joy where I just soaked in everything, including the wondrous hamlet of Alvaredos with its pilgrim station (oh my! And I needed that coffee so badly!), the building with the painted wooden figures, its many cats, and the friendly resident who leaned out of his upper floor window for a chinwag. Yesterday I couldn’t help but wish I’d been able to experience the forest before the fires…
I have beeen unbelievably lucky with the weather. Walking through Galicia for 6 days, and it’s been great - no rain, no wind, mild even warm at times, certainly just thin base layer kind of days. The
Altus has seen no action so far on this Camino, and much as I love and appreciate it, that’s fine by me.
In terms of Peregrinos, our numbers have no swelled to FOUR: me, Jordi (un Catalan, as the papers call him, Angelo from Italy who started out from Almeira, and Jako from
Madrid, who’s picked up from where he left off on the Via de La Plata last year on Zamora, to complete it now.
I stayed in Hostel Quiper in Quiroga, and we’re all in Albergue Lemova in Monforte. I recommend both, but here are a couple of tips:
#1: this might just be my experience, but for a room (en-suite) in Hostel Quiper, booking dot com showed a price of £32, but when I showed up in person on Sat, I got the room for €24.
Quiper is perfectly located - everything is situated along the main road through the town. A Dia is located just 100m walk away. A Botica was a nice place to hang out and drink (and no doubt eat too).
#2: I like Albergue Lemova but to be aware that it’s on the other side of the railway tracks (just by them in fact) and not in the centre of the town. So if you do want to see the glories of Monforte before night time, you need to walk faster than me to reach Quiroga, check in, shower etc, do all the usual stuff! I’ll see it this morning when the Camino heads out, but it’s not the same.
Dog Watch
In short, quite a few of them. Personally I had no problem with dogs, having been brought up with them, but I do have respect for strange dogs. So, in addition to the usual barking dogs tied up or behind fences:
On Sat’s stretch before reaching Quiroga, a dog came chasing after me, barking its head off. This happened just after the left hand turn after the apartments in Soldándoos. To get rid of it, I had to pick up something from the ground and act as if I was going to throw a stone at it. After 2 or 3 times of doing this, it finally gave up.
On ydays stage, it you take the alternative
route through Noceda, there’s a loose Alsatian that stood up and did a bit of barking as I walked by, but nothing threatening.
There was a problem about 200m after the bridge in A Ponte, when a dog came hurtling out of its home to me, barking furiously and growling. The owners down in their garden called it back, and then I could hear the sounds of the man punishing the dog (from the dog’s yelps).
Then there is a big mastiff type dog in a hamlet just before you do the final climb before Monforte. It was standing in the middle of the street, and Jako who was walking ahead of me, felt nervous and was retracing his steps to try to find a way around it. “Come with me” I said, we’ll go past the dog together. Moments later…well, I’ll just leave this pic. In essence, Reis, the dog, is a big softy of a 1 year old puppy…
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