Camino Invierno: 6. Quiroga to Monforte de Lemos. 36 kms

I set out in a bit of a drizzle.

But I wasn’t going to grizzle.

For I was glad of relief from the heat.

But then it became a mizzle

And ended in a fizzle

Lucky was I that it wasn’t sleet.

There are good days and not so good days. This was one of the latter.

I walked along the Main Street out of town, and then up and up, always up. For a while it was light in the sky behind me as the sun struggled to get through. Wisps of cloud were resting on the mountains across the valley. It was a more sombre beauty than yesterday.

That scent again. Could it be cinnamon?

I climbed and climbed, and then I turned off the road and walked up towards a ridge through what was once a pine plantation. But now, on either side, the trees had been felled, and only stumps remained, blackened in one area, so a fire had passed through here, unless the foresters had deliberately burnt the remaining  brush. I passed by several mangled messes of branches, not worth harvesting, but good pickings for those with a woodstove. This may once have been a mediaeval path, but it was a now a forest road.

This wasn’t the most scenic of days. I walked through barren landscape, scarred by the roads that had been cut through the forests to harvest trees. It was ugly.

I had thought that I might stay at A Labrada, but somehow I missed it, and I eventuallly arrived at A Prodo. Twenty-four kilometres, that was enough for me. However, there was no accommodation at all. Brierley says the mayor and council are eager to welcome pilgrims, but I certainly wasn’t welcomed. The nearest accommodation, they said, was at Monforte, 12 kms on. What to do? I thought I might throw myself to the mercy of the council or the civil guard, but being the afternoon, everything was closed.

So I pressed on. This last stretch beside the river was mostly flat, and apart from one bugger of a climb, an easy stroll, if I hadn’t been exhausted.

This was my most difficult day, and not my most enjoyable. And yet, I covered two Gronze steps in one day, something I have never done before. Mind you, they were shorter steps than usual for Gronze.