Distance: 40.6km (277.8km), time spent: 12:36 (89:00).
Weather: Fog, then it became sunny, blue sky and very hot.
After my camera lens broke and I chose to stop in Tineo, I have been one day behind my plan. Since I want to go the Camino Finisterre and to Muxia afterwards, I have to walk at least one very long day to get back to my original time schedule. The choice stood between walking 40 kilometres on the last day to Santiago de Compostela, walking 45 kilometres tomorrow or walking 40 kilometres today. I wish to have some time in Santiago when I first has walked there and to walk forty-five kilometres is not tempting.
In the misty morning after Castroverde walking across a field.
I have instead chosen not to stay in Lugo, like most of the others, but rather continuing further to San Roman da Retorta. So when I walk out of Castroverde in the usual morning mist, together with Douglas and Francis, I have forty kilometres ahead of me. Douglas has chosen to accompany me there, something I am happy about. We have booked a place in the private albergue there, O Candido, which was easier said than done. All the phone numbers we found in the guidebooks did not lead anywhere, in the end the hospitalero at the albergue managed to obtain the number.
Cross at Souto de Torres.
That the clouds are lying dense above the ground does not make much of a view, but I am walking with the feeling that it does not matter much to and from. Most of the 22 kilometres to Lugo is a walk that I cannot muster the greatest enthusiasm for. Most of the walk is a nice enough route until Santa María de Gondar, passing by cultural landscape and little villages, but the great experience is absent. Afterwards the experience are being thinned out with several long stretches on boring roads.
Castiñeiro da Corredoira, a big chestnut tree on the detour at Soutomerille.
The most exciting about the walk came however on a detour off the Camino, before Gondar I came to a sign pointing to a gravel road leading into the forest and away from the route. The sign also clearly showed how you could return to the Camino without having to backtrack on the same way. Yellow arrows leads me into the unknown and through pleasant tunnels of trees in the woods. I arrive at some ruins of some old buildings (Casa - Torre de Arriba), a huge chestnut tree (Castiñeiro da Corredoira) and an old and much worn church where the walls inside of it have become green of mold (Igrexa Parroquial de San Salvador de Soutomerille).
Inside Igrexa Parroquial de San Salvador de Soutomerille, the walls are green of mold. I do not think that his church is in much use.
I arrive in Lugo beneath a sky where not a single cloud exists, not a single one, they vanished without a trace. The sight of the old Roman city walls are making me question myself whether it was a good idea to move on, they are looking great. Reunion is otherwise the first word that strikes me; I catch up with Klaus, Douglas and Frank on my way into the city. At the gates of the old town, I happily meets Axel again, who in the end finally took his zero day. Outside the albergue, there are also many familiar faces, Lucy, Madi, Rafael, Lucas and Elke. Joe, Annie and Francisca also appears, they came here yesterday after having walked about fifty kilometres.
Santa Maria Cathedral in Lugo of which the construction began in 1129.
Douglas and I spend about three and a half hours in Lugo, to get to see at least something of the city. We eat a big lunch; whereupon we meet Frank who does not seem quite satisfied that he chose to stay. We visit the cathedral, Santa Maria, and then goes for a walk on top of the city walls. The city walls of Lugo are the largest surviving Roman walls in the world, goes for 2 kilometres around the city, are 8.5 metres high and has 85 round towers. It is almost a sin to continue walking. I do not attempt to get me a new lens for my camera.
Wallwalk on top of Lugo, two kilometres of surviving Roman walls.
After Lugo, everything revolves around the heat. The sun is baking on the sky and I almost yearns (but only almost) back to the more chill walk in the clouds earlier. It is more of a road walk now, but in this matter the blue sky is helping out, the view is better than earlier. Fortunately the route are passing three bars on the way to San Roman da Retorta, I fill up with drinks both in me and in my water bottle in the bar in O Burgo do San Vicente.
Puerta de Santiago with the cathedral in Lugo behind, the Camino leaves the old city of Lugo through this gate.
Roman bridge in the outskirts of Lugo that crosses the river Río Miño.
Despite of the road, it is a relatively easy-going route, something that is probably satisfying for my feet. Still, I am tired and happy to arrive when I come to San Roman da Retorta; the place is not big. There is a small bar here and I look forward to relieve me of my backpack. Instead, I am being pushed onward by a local; the albergue is situated a little bit outside of the hamlet. One kilometre outside actually. Even though it is not that far, I do not know if I am enticed to going back here again to eat.
The church in O Burgo do San Vicente, locating the bar next of it was not difficult.
The joy is however great when the albergue is appearing, it is a quiet place in the forest that I immediately likes. Outside, to my even greater joy is Pol, Pablo and Rocio sitting. When in addition it turns out that the albergue has everything you otherwise need, of food and drink, is it perfect for a tired pilgrim. Douglas arrives a little later than me, quite tired he as well. At dinner, I choose ham with melon as a starter; it is being served as a big plate with ham and a big melon on top it (DIY food). Later, Joe, Francisca and Annie arrives, they chose to go here today as well.
The O Candido albergue in San Roman da Retorta, a quiet place in the middle of the woods.
I have now left someone for good, met again people I did not think I would see again, left some of them again and met new people. Such is the life on the Camino, pilgrims are coming and going.
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