Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Camino de Finisterre // day 17 // Negreira - Logoso

Camino Primitivo / Camino Finisterre day 17.
Distance: 36.7km (415.2km), time spent: 10:14 (128:16).
Weather: Grey, overcast, rain and glimpses of sun.


I decided early in the evening yesterday that it was to a small place I would walk to today. In my Cicerone guidebook I could read '...all the way into and through tiny Logoso...' and I just knew inside me that it was there I would walk to today. A long walk, but it turned out to be well worth it.

On the way out of Negreira you walk past this elaborate wall, next to the Pazo de Coton.

Weatherwise, it was little indication of how great the day would turn out to be, it was a grey and sad weather mostly, with small glimpses of sun in between. Still, the weather was a part of what made the walk so great, it was a long walk in a landscape that appeared desolate, where the sorrowful clouds only enhanced the atmosphere.

Walking through a moody forest after Zas.

Ironically, it is when I leave Negreira that I first see something interesting in the town. Before the route crosses the river Río Barcala you pass by the elaborate walls of Pazo de Coton, a medieval palace with a chapel from the eighteenth century, Capela de San Mauro. In the walls, there are small stalls, but what they are used for now I do not know.

Below Pedra Edrada there was for a short while blue sky and a rainbow that stretched itself across the sky.

I am a little bit ambivalent in the first hours of the day, the walk beneath the clouds has a melancholy beauty over it, but at the same time I walk and think about how it would have been had I walked here yesterday in the nice weather. I pass by small villages and hamlets that seems abandoned to fend for themselves, through lonely forests in quietness. Going over a hill with rolling verdant fields, I wish I could see what is hidden behind the clouds, at the same time as I enjoy the current view. Above the windmills the sun is breaking through the clouds for some moments, a rainbow bends across the sky.

In Vilaserio, most of the pilgrims gathers at the local traditional bar, but a little further away an older lady waves at me. I walk over there. It turns out to be a small and pleasant café run by an elderly couple in their own garden, here I can sit in a comfortably chair while I drink a café con leche and eat a toast. Walking past the albergue and the bar at the place, I yet again regret not going here yesterday.

Baiuca de Xan in Vilaserio, a small café run by an elderly couple in their own garden.

After Vilaserio, it is more desolate walking until Santa Marina, where the clouds ruffles the trees. I meet again Vincente in one of the bars there, happy to see that he has made it. He now sends his backpack ahead of him and is now walking only in sandals, the shoes he originally used was too small. They speak Danish at the table next to us.

Each time I move up into a little higher ground, blue sky and sun appears in the sky. As soon as I get lower down again, the clouds closes its embrace again. Around me, there are several hills that I want to climb to the top of, but from the Camino there are no good paths leading up to them. A lake appears in the view, Encoro da Fervenza.

Fonte de Cornado, a water source on the 'desolate' stretch between Vilaserio and Santa Marina.

After Abeleiroas, there are some rocky hills breaking up from the ground, which reminds me a little of the crags I walked across on the Hadrian's Wall Path in England. I leave my backpack behind and climb on top of one of the crags. There is a small wall on top of the crag. A small watchtower, Mirador de Corzón, where you can look out over the landscape, with an onerous layer of clouds above it. In the horizon, I can see the unmistakable signature of rain coming towards you, wind blows around my ears.

View towards a green world turned almost grey in Mazaricos, a lonely tree.

It is in Olveiroa most of the pilgrims usually stop on their Camino to the end of the world, and it is nice and small village consisting of several old buildings of stone. A private albergue here runs both a restaurant and a tiny store. The public albergue here looks pleasant as well. It would have been a nice play to stay. I schedule one hour to relax and have some food in the village. In the bar beneath the public albergue, I meet Klaus and three other walkers.

View from the Mirador de Corzón, a veil of rain in the horizon.

That I move silently is confirmed when I scare the woman working at the bar when I go to pay, she has not heard me coming in and makes a startled cry when she turns around and sees me. From Olveiroa there is about four kilometres left of the day to walk for me. To me, it becomes a fantastic ending of the walk for today.

In Olveiroa beneath the public albergue. The village is known for its buildings of stone.

On the way from Olveiroa, the feeling I had when I walked on the meseta on the Camino Frances comes back to me. Just me, alone and a desolate scenery. Around me, the clouds enshrouds the hills. The wind soars foreboding where I walk in solitude. I pack my jacket tighter around me. A feeling of leaving the civilization. This is what I love. Raindrops slow, but sure begins to form in the air. Beneath the route a river runs through, you can hear the hum of it through the wind. The river ends in a small lake with a dam.

A sensation of desolation on the walk between Olveiroa and Logoso, just me, alone and the howling wind.

I come to Logoso just as the rain starts for full, and it is the small albergue here that I encounter first. Logoso is just as I wants the village to be, it is a tiny place only consisting of a small number of houses. It is warm and nice inside the albergue, I feel at home.

In the evening, the rain increases. It is a good feeling sitting inside now and looking out while the raindrops fills the air, while I thinks about the today's walk. I eat dinner together with Diana, a Danish girl that has ran the whole of Camino Frances and is now running the Camino Finisterre and Muxia as an encore. A sporty and nice girl, and it is also nice to speak my own language again, we can understand each other. It has been a marvellous day.

Logoso. The private albergue O'Logoso, a small and very pleasant albergue.

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