Negreira to Olveiroa – Walking about 30 km, but for me about 15 km
Nice sleep after a nice dinner and the 20km (13 miles) walk yesterday. The hotel has a really nice upscale dining room. The hotel is used by tours and about 8pm a large German tour group came in for dinner, just as I and Erin from Austin finished our meal and left. They really had a nice time. I could hear the salubrious singing until about 10:30 when all went quiet.
The hotel set a nice breakfast buffet the next morning.
During the night it poured. Much more than had been expected. But it was only lightly raining at breakfast – just sort of light drops then nothing them more drops. The forecast was for very light rain in the am then clear in the afternoon. As I walked out the door about 8:30 it was raining a little harder, but I thought my ‘Patagonia’ water resistant gear would keep me reasonably dry. Within 150 yards it started to rain much harder and I realized Patagonia’s idea of water resistant did not include rain and I could feel the water seeking into my shirt and pants. I made a quick right turn to a cafe at the bus stop (about 100 yds more) and joined, oh, maybe 18 others with backpacks with the same idea I had – go somewhere else.
A couple, James from Seattle and Gabriela from Geneva, Switzerland hailed me as a fellow American and called me to join. I guess the 10 +/- Koreans in the cafe, busily working their smartphones, didn’t provide much company to them. They were heading for Muxia and I decided to join them.
Muxia is about 30 km due north of Fisterra (hiking) and much longer by road. Muxia was a secondary destination for me. It is a small fishing village with a famous chapel/peregrino hospital. Many peregrinos continue to Muxia after Fisterra to visit the chapel and old hospital there.
The bus ride to Muxia was about 45 minutes. The three of us had lunch, looked around for an hour. The weather cleared and was blue sky, so I decided to taxi back to Bainos, and walk to Olveiroa, my destination for the day anyway – about a 15km walk.
Wind was blowing right down the road – but no more rain
Once the taxi dropped me off, I was walking on a dead straight road. That was fine since there was no rain, but it was very windy and blowing straight into my face. The wind was blowing 15-25mph and gusting to 30-35. Not very pleasant, but surely better than the rain.
An old church – click to enlarge and look at the sculpture above the door
Once I reached Olveiroa, I stopped at the first significant hotel / pension (Casa Loncho) and got a small room with shared bath for 30E. Too bad, because just 100 yds. down the road was a much nicer place (Ai Pais) – a three star by someone, and I wish I had gone there. The place I stayed had a pedestrian bar and dining room. The food was ok. The wine was, as usual quite good. The room was kinda sucky.
Casa Loncho – but a better pension was 100 yds further along
The good part was I meet Raymond and Patricia from Pasadena in the bar and we dined together. It was enjoyable company. Then the next morning I met two sisters from San Diego. We would all meet up on the Camino again several times.
It is supposed to rain tomorrow.