Camino Invierno: 10. Lalin to Silleda. 17kms

Bonzer Gronze

What would I do without Gronze?

I have to say it’s a bonzer

Website: everything about the Way,

Where to go and where to stay,

But one complaint, if I may?

It’s always further than they say!

(“Bonzer” is an Australian word meaning “good”, as in, “He’s a bonzer bloke.” It is thought that Australian soldiers brought the word back from the First World War, after hearing the French say, “C’est bon, ça.” Perhaps a more appropriate word to have brought back from the trenches would have been “malzer”.)

In the opening chapter of The Old Ways: a Journey on Foot,  Robert Macfarlane writes about the tradition of  walking and mentions the poet Edward Thomas:

To Thomas, paths connected real places, but they also led outwards to metaphysics, backwards to the past, and inwards to the self.

That just about sums it up for me. Walking provides the solitude necessary to think, and the natural rhythms of the body stimulate reflection and introspection. 

Last night I stayed  at the Hotel Palacio (40€). I forgot to mention that the Albergue-Hostal Carpinteiras in Rodeiro was very good.

I was sluggish this morning. Must have been the second Estrella Galicia.

Overcast again, but bit of a red tinge behind me This was the nicest walk out of a Camino town that I have ever experienced. Instead of progressing along city streets until they finally petered out, I was walking through a park, and then along a footpath  beside a brook. I was in the fields in a matter of minutes. The path continued for several kilometres.

And then, it was along minor roads beside major roads, including a stint beside the motor way, before I realized I was off track. When I found my way back to the Camino I was on the Camino Sanabrés. I had walked the Camino Invierno!

The highlight of the day was a stretch of very ancient road, (cobbled is not the word, for these were very large stones that made up the pavement), leading across the Roman bridge, Ponte Taboada. I struggled to get a photo.

And then, as I walked up the road from the bridge, I was passed by a dozen or so pilgrims in very high spirits. Well, they would be. They were wearing day packs, or no pack at all, while I was struggling with a lead weight on my back. I walked in to town through another oak wood. Majestic oaks, this time.

I was thinking of going a little further, but I feared that the group of packless pilgrims might have booked out the accommodation at the next town. All along the way I had been passing advertisements for the Touristico Albergue, so I decided to reward their efforts by staying there. Nice room with a balcony for 20€.

Sufficient unto the day….