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Cobbling between Chantada and Bandeira on The Invierno

©Colin Modified shoe

Today was Colin’s chance to display his cobbling skills to me after his shoe has been causing him so much pain, very artful it was too, certainly unlike any of my bodged jobs. See the photo for full details, I don’t think he’s applied for a patent yet!

Apparently, it did the trick at zero cost enabling him to walk with much less pain 🙂

The walking distance between Chantada and Bandeira according to my route sheet is 55km which, obviously, at our pace is way too far.  So once again we called on the services of Geoff to take us to just the other side of Lalin giving us a very pleasant 22km walk to Bandeira.

Stork on chimney

Unfortunately, we were admiring the HOXE dairy plant so much we missed the footpath turning immediately after it 🙁 thus meaning we at to walk across the Rio Dezo bridge and thus ended up on the busy N-525 road. Mistake spotted we hurried onto a minor road to rejoin the path at its other end.

We then arrived in Silleda and started debating about having our usual late lunch, unfortunately, Geoff had already left for Banderia which meant no lunch for us us. Spanish places stop serving at 4 ish and don’t open again till 8 ish 🙁

The Hostel Conda Rey in Banderia is quite basic as is the town with its overpowering smell of pig muck 🙁 In the end for dinner we ended up driving back to Silleda which for me was the most disgusting so-called Vegi pizza ever 🙁 they replaced it with some very yellow tortilla.

We ended up walking 22km with 350metres of climbing.

The pictures of the day are here:
Camino Inveirdo to Barreida
Colin has written another excellent post on the day here https://colindavies.blogspot.com/2019/05/thoughts-from-galicia-spain-22519.html

Camino Invierno – Monforte de Lemos to Chantada

Today should have been a long day as the Camino distance between Monforte and Chantada   is 31km. However, we are exceptionally fortunate in having a backup with Geoff driving Colins car so once again he drove us outside Monforte to the 113.3 marker stone on the LU-4106.

The route is very rural keeping me occupied updating the hamlet names on OSM every mile or so using the Go Map!! app. walking was quite slow as Colin’s foot was playing up again plus he left his hat behind at one of our many stops necessitating a dash back for me to collect it.

The drop down through the woods to Belesar from the church of San Paio de Diamondi (Interestingly the 100km point to Santiago) was fantastic although looking at the equally sharp ascent across the river made us pleased that Geoff was waiting by the river in the car especially since we hadn’t passed any open bars or shops!

After some food and checking in at Hotel Mogay we then attempted to find the Gold award winning Airas Moniz cheese farm, GMaps conveniently stuck a pin in the middle of a field which we then drove around in a series of circles 🙁 Eventually, we found some mechanics who gave us instructions. Once there whilst waiting for the cheesemaker to separate the curd & whey  I updated OSM to make sure no one suffers the same fate!

We had a quick tour, its a very small place, interesting but alas no blue cheese to take away but the sample tasted pretty good.

Strava says we walked I6.7km (but 1.2km was fetching the errant hat)and 305m of ascent.

Strava says:

The pics are here:

Camino Invierno to Chantara

Here is Colin’s estimable post of the day https://colindavies.blogspot.com/2019/05/thoughts-from-galicia-21519.html

Camino Invierno – A La Brada to Monforte de Lemos

Another excellent walking day, I’m really getting into my stride now 🙂 The distance between Quiroga and Monforte de Lemos on the Camino Invierno is given as 36km which is a bit far for us, although a first for us on this Camino is we met a fellow walker from Austria who was doing the whole 36km at speed.

Our solution was to ride in the car to Restaurant La Brada this reduced the distance to just less than 20km starting very close to a medieval bridge and a 200 metre climb 🙂

Dropping down into A Pobra do Brollón a wild boar and her family of piglets dashed across our path, fortunately, the father wasn’t around although Colin did get to meet the local election candidate, at length, in the cafe when we stopped for our morning drink 🙂

The scenery then became more rural and flatter apart from the final 100 metre climb before the descent into Monforte de Lemos and Geoff awaiting in the car to take us to the Hotel Ribeira and a short walk to the excellent Taperia Restaurant.

An excellent day walking of 19km.  The rain stayed away. although at one point it became quite cold.

The  Strava is here:

and the days’ pics are here:

Camino Invierno A Labrada to Monforte de Lemos
Another excellent write up on the day by Colin here https://colindavies.blogspot.com/2019/05/thoughts-from-galicia-spain-20519.html

 

Camino Invierno – O Barco de Valdeorras to Quiroga

River Sil Valley

Once again as the Camino Walks it would have been 46 km from  O Barco de Valdeorras to our lodgings outside Quiroga our distance is governed by the lack of accommodation on the route especially for 3 pilgrims requiring single rooms, although it has to  be said we haven’t walked past very many, if any other, accommodations that are open.

Fortunately for today Colin and I having Geoff with his Achilles tendon problem and Colin’s car we not only get to have our bags carried but also can choose which bits to walk 🙂 Today we chose to walk from Montefurado to the outskirts of Quiroga a distance according to my watch of  just over 17km but with over 450m of ascent.

House in need of TLC

The views down the Sil River are magnificent as are all the ancient derelict houses begging to be renovated, in fact, we asked the sole resident in the street he immediately wanted me to buy his 3 bedroomed modernish house with amazing views down the valley for €50,000 so he could retire to Leon. 🙂

A very enjoyable day with the weather quite a bit cooler and the occasional light shower underfoot mainly on tracks and incredibly quiet roads.

We managed to find a lunch stop on the outskirts of Quiroga, the Meson Parillada O Ferreirino very pleasant and at €10 for a three-course meal and beer a real bargain. Then a short ride to our homestay lodgings Hospedaje Ferreria-Quinta with the two baby owls nesting in the old tree stump outside 🙂

Strava says we walked 17km and 456 metres of ascent in 4 hours 23min
Today’s pics are here:
Camino Invierno – O Barco de Valdeorras to Quiroga