Distance: 29.9km (206.4km / 935.1km).
Weather: Quite overcast, sunny later on.
Today morning it was back to being a luxury pilgrim again, I opted for the breakfast at the hotel, but it is fair to say that you get far more to eat than the usual café breakfast. While I certainly felt more heavy in the stomach after eating breakfast, it was that I had to wait that made me start off later today. At the square next to the church, locals are preparing for a market day. Chantada becomes even more agreeable to me on my way through and out of it.
A peto de animas (wayside shrine) on the way out of Chantada.
I catch a sort of sunrise at the top of Chantada, at the last houses of the town. Today there is surprisingly no morning mist. You sort of walk straight out of Chantada and into a little village, O Peto, and then again straight into another, Centulle. The Camino soon enters more cultivated farmland and although I walk close by what must be a busy road, it is hidden from sight by trees, and I cannot hear much of a sound coming from the road either.
Morning sun over a Galician farm.
Sheltered from the busy road, I walk on small country roads, but mostly on gravel tracks. Never far away from anything, but going through what is essential farmland with just a few buildings scattered around. With the blue sky, I have high hopes for the what comes later. I can see it in the distance, rising. At lazy intervals, the Camino leads me through woods, with sunlight filtered through the trees. A fox runs across an acre, occasionally stopping up to look at me, wondering who this person walking with a scallop on his back is. Several times it stops, looking back, wagging its white striped tail.
Filtered sunlight over the Camino.
Another day or stage scheduled having no services to offer on the way until just before the end, but it is not true. In Penasillás, a charming hamlet, there is a bar. Its sign is faded, barely discernible, but a bar there is. I ca sit and watch the small centre square of the hamlet centered next to the small church. A local farmer is out collecting chestnuts. No other pilgrims around, of course, Kevin and Kari are long ahead of me. If there were pilgrims here, I might see them make offerings to the Holy Spirit, well and communal oven. There is also a peto de animas here, a wayside shrine.
A curious fox stands looking at me.
Camino towards Sierra del Faro.
Behind Penasillás rises what is the expected highlight of the day, the Sierra del Faro. At the top of what is also the highest point of the Invierno, lies the Ermida da Nosa Señora do Faro. I start walking up on the path in high mood, but behind there is bad news for my mood. An anmassing of clouds are waiting in line to climb up. The sky has veiled over too. Up it goes, winding, a landscape of clouds and farmland behind me. For all my hopes of a clear blue sky passage over the sierra, it is still a great walk. The pale light makes the scenery feel more desolate, with a barren hill standing in front of me. I am ambiguous, both happy and disappointed at the same time, my usual eternal battle.
Penasillás with its small church and wayside shrine (peto de animas).
Venturing off the path, onto a hill, I can look out across the trodden landscape behind. I can see Chantada, but it is not entirely apparent. A road is cradling its way on the more open slopes of the Faro hill head. I hope the Camino goes on that road. Back on the Camino there is a monument, but with my limited Spanish I am unable to figure out for what. Nor does the Camino go on the road I had hoped, instead taking a road more secluded by tree. There are still views though.
Sierra del Faro.
A sloping meadow (almost) lined with crosses leads the pilgrims up to the Ermida da Nosa Señora do Faro. The lines of crosses is a Way of the Cross known as the Camiño da Virxe (Way of the Virgin). Surrounding the 17th century stone chapel are several cruceiros and stones, and an outdoor altar. The sky is a pale version of blue, you might say it gives a contemplative atmosphere to the scene. Too bad the chapel is closed, as usual. On september 8 each year there is a pilgrimage here.
A monument below Faro.
View out from the ascent of Sierra del Faro.
I sit down in the outdoor altar to eat my lunch, it has a roof over it, which is nice as a gusty wind blows over the sierra and chapel. In some ways, the place invokes a sad feeling too.
Way of the Cross, or Camiño da Virxe.
The outdoor altar and the stone chapel of Ermida da Nosa Señora do Faro.
Nearby and higher up is the Mirador de Faro. The slowly undulating landscape I have passed through is spread out before me, behind are the higher hills and mountains. From here, you can see all of the four Galician provinces. A gravel track is following the undulating ridge as it descends downwards. Next to the viewpoint is a building with mirrored walls on all sides, and a fire watchtower. I spend a long time up here, it is nice, also sitting down at some cliffs below to take in the scenery. The anmassing of clouds I was afraid would obscure the views did not happen. I probably spend a little too much time here, but sometimes it is good to just be at a place seeing and not hasten by.
A cruceiro at Ermida da Nosa Señora do Faro, notice the ladders.
A last look up at the lonely Ermida da Nosa Señora do Faro, I walk away and downwards. Down at a junction, I prepare to turn left as the map I have states I will, but the Camino turns right instead. Taking me by surprise. Now I do not know where the Winter Way is taking me. Exciting. I am not worried as the route has been well marked. It does not go on top of the ridge either, underneath the towering beasts of the wind turbines. It enters the eastern side of the Sierra del Faro and follows it northwards. Still, it puzzles me why the map in my guidebook is so wrong, maybe the route once did cross the ridge, but has changed since.
Ermida da Nosa Señora do Faro.
Nevertheless, I am happy for it. It gives me more nice ridgewalk with views. An old fountain is passed by, or more a water source. A boardwalk into the woods takes me there, Fonte dos Meniños, but there is little water except for a soggy surface to see. I cross a road and then the Camino prepares to finally descend from the ridge. I do not, as my curiosity is turning tricks on me again, having spotted what must be another mirador on the hill above. Braving the loss of time, I go up to the platform giving me views of the next days landscape. It appear flatter, but a rolling flatness.
Faro mirrored.
View from the Mirador do Far (eastwards).
Down, the Camino Real de Invierno slowly changes to the Camino de Estiércol. Although passing by some nice churches, mansions, places and woodland paths, it slowly informs you that you are walking in a cultivated landscape. The surface is sometimes very soft, but not from the original ground, but by what the cows leaves behind. Pleasant at first when down from the Faro, the Camino later turns less exciting and tiredly I begin to hope to arrive in Rodeiro soon.
Fonte dos Meniños.
Camino on Sierra del Faro.
What might be worth seeing in Rodeiro, I see upon the walk into it. Here the town hall is built upon on the ruins of a fortress, with a nice little park next to it. Caring for a break, I stop at a bar for a beer, before walking up to my accommodation. Which is the Hostal Carpinteiras. It is a fine place by the look of it, known Camino locations adorns the walls. My room has a big picture of a bridge on one wall. Outside is the local football team playing a match, I do not know which team is which.
Mirador and view westwards.
Path to Rodeiro.
Here in Rodeiro I do not do much other than stay at my hostal. In the evening I eat dinner with Kevin and Kari again, who I first believed to have walked on as I did not hear from them for a long time. Felipe is also here, now together with another Spanish pilgrim, Miguel. This tiny group is sort of my Camino family here on the Invierno.
Rodeiro, the town hall built upon an old fortress.
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