Camino Primitivo

Grandas de Salime to Fonsagrada 

September 11 2023

This morning our cab was right on time and it drove us the 6 kms into town.  We had walked this before our rest day so as to reduce todays distance.  Even with the 6 kms into town we still had a 26 kms day with over 800 meters of climb.  It was a fast ride with the taxi leaning hard into all of the really tight corners on the twisting road up to town.  

As we started out it was up a really steep hill, although starting out up hill has become standard operating procedure.  Last night it had rained quite hard for at least a couple of hours so the trail was wet and muddy.  In addition the high humidity had turned to a dense fog.  As we walked along the trail the trees were dripping on us giving it a unreal atmosphere.   The higher we climbed the bluer the sky above us got and we could see that the valley was filled with fog.  

As we passed into the province of Galicia the Camino markers changed from the little white markers with scallop shell to large granite markers with the shell marker, a milage count down plaque and an arrow.  The direction of the scallop shell also changed.  In Asturias you went to the base of the shell but in Galicia the base of the shell is where you are and you head to the rim of the shell.  The quality of the trail also improved by an order of magnitude.

Just as we turned a corner and started up a hill a cloud burst hit us.  There was a mad scramble to pull on rain gear.  Fortunately the down pour only lasted about 10 minutes and we were pulling the rain gear pretty quickly.

We stopped for lunch at a cafe at about the 19 kms markwhere Bob and I shared a lunch of toasted French bread with ham and melted Camembert cheese.  It really hit the spot. 

A few more hills, and a few more down hills and we were on the out skirts of town. Unfortunately the last 1.8 kms was a really really steep up hill grind.  Bob's Camino book had warned us but not  prepared us.  We were all huffing and puffing as we pulled into to.  

We are in a really nice pension tonight and I know I am going to sleep well.

Terry