This was to be an easy day, about 15 km. The day was clear, and sunny, but not too warm. The walk out of Fisterra turned into a walk in the woods along a forest of ferns once we were clear of Fisterra’s houses.  All we saw were a few rural villages and mostly without services (bars, water fountains etc).

We did have a few hundred feet of climbing but were back as the same elevation when we arrived at Lires.

We had hoped to find a place for coffee and more at lunch time, but either we missed it or it didn’t exist.  The lack of accommodations resulted in us finally just sitting on the dirt road for lunch (some ham, bread, fruit and cheese purchased the afternoon before in Fisterra). The whole route today was through green or flowering fields and mostly on narrow roads or trails with no traffic.  The air was cool, with a warm sun.  The warm tranquility of this route was really nice.  We had a few other walkers pass us as we enjoyed lunch, but mostly it was just us and pleasant weather and surroundings.

Just before entering Lires we passed this field full of flowers.  The trail is on the right side of the field.

Field of flowers as we entered Lires

We stayed at Casa Luz in Lires. It is a small rustic house run by Yolanda and her mother. I think there were only 4 rooms.  We were the only guests that night. They spoke almost no English, in fact we had to have the people at the Hotel Mariquito (where we stayed the night before) help in making our reservations.  It all worked out just fine.   When we arrived, Yolanda offered us a beer and some freshly baked cake.  So we enjoyed freshly baked cake and a cold beer on the patio overlooking the valley down to the ocean.  Such a view (unfortunately no photo – forgot to take it) !

Casa LIres – the patio with the great view is on the right behind the railing

Dinner was about 50 meters away at the local bar. There were several groups of female pilgrims on the patio of the bar having a great time. They looked like there were school teachers but they were speaking German, French, Spanish, a little english (not from the UK).  We didn’t see them on the trail before we arrived in Lires or the next day on the way to Muxia so I suppose they were part of some organized tour party.  Maybe they just left earlier or later than we did.  But we had not seen them before and we did not see them again the next day on the way to Muxia so it is really unclear how they were functioning when moving from town to town.  But at the bar they had no problem having a nice, sociable time.

Tomorrow we finish in Muxia, I am sad to say.