Negreira to alto de pena

It's a beautiful way to spend 2 hours mostly walking through forest and not a huge amount of up and down but enough to make it 2 hours for 5-6km.

Leaving town at 9.10am I passed my new favourite bar that serves outstanding food.

A very understated chef delivered food of excellence.

The price just felt so ridiculously low. On my bank statement it said £31.41 and that included a bottle of Ramon Bilbao.

I sat on the back balcony overlooking the river until a monsoon forced me one table more inside.

Was that the reason I paused at the bottom of the hill taking pictures.

It was certainly the reason I stopped at the top of the hill!

I carried on into the forest about 9.15 and it's set high above the road.

After half n hour you join the road.

I tried to find the bar but not that hard. I saw empty bottles in crates but no signs and as the weather was good I thought carry on.

A dog kindly ushered me through and out of town.

15 minutes later youre back in the forest and it's lovely.

Bird song fought with my tinitus and bird song won 4-1.

Then you emerge into a wee town and you think ah, yes, this water is ok to drink and the bar is just here.

Next thing you're down for 10mins and up for 15 and you're at the bar.

What an oasis

It's on the hill so breezy too.

Perfect place to type.

And dry a sweaty shirt.

the last allotment watering

Yes it will be 8 days until I see all my plants again.

I sowed more courgettes and peas yesterday and gave them a decent soak.

The beetroot also got a third sowing so hopefully no slug damage.

I say damage but my courgette was feeding a family of 9.

I'm not religious but that does seem a bit too many mouths to feed. On the other hand the birds aren't Buddhists so when I moved them to the path they swooped in and had their fill. I've hidden the new showings of beets in a box.

So Santander flight leaves 15:40, Mexicana gets a visit again, first time since Stu was up the road in the hotel and I was in a 40€ room - 10 years on its only 36€.

I went for a haircut but it was rammed so I jumped the 24 down the road and managed to get the same driver on the way back proving 20 mins for watering is plenty. I also moved some of the tomatoes onto my shelf behind the glass so they'll be thirsty or dead on my return.

The weather forecast has been tough on guessing Galician clothes to pack and I've gone with it's hot so the rain will warm you up.

Accomodation, Airlines and distances for June 6th - 13th (AKA 5th June now!!)

Weather always changes opinions, too hot or wet often leave you deranged, so we have flexibility. I'm now flying via Santander and puir Jimmy is staying at home following the flight cancellations June 6th fly 9.30am from Edinburgh to Santiago - Arrive and bus into Pension Centro next to bus stop. Its going to be 25 degrees and by 5pm thunderstorms. It should clear quickly so if we have a siesta we can go out for a wee tapa at 8pm June 7th - Wednesday - Walk 23km to Negreira stay at Flat opposite language school. Temperature 18 degrees at 8am so by 11 it'll be 21. We will hopefully be at the cafe in Carballo having climbed the hill, but if we are at the bottom of the hill at Cafe bar O'79 so be it. The next stage after the climb is extremely exposed so hope its not too hot. We will then get shade by the river before back out to the road again for the last hour. June 8th - Thursday - Walk to Albergue O'Rueiro (there's another albergue there, called Casa Vella in Vilaserio. 14km seems a short day but its a tough start to the day and when we stop at Cafe in Pena it'll be nearly 11, then its very exposed again to Vilaserio. Its due to rain at 5pm so happy to stop slightly early. June 9th - Friday Walk to O'Logoso would be fun (25km) its just after Oliveira (19km) but we will book Casa Manola (19.6km) - Stop at 7.6km Albergue / cafe Santa Marina on main road. Rain could be heavy around 2pm but temperature is 22 so it'll be refreshing! O'Logoso is 15km whereas Mazirocos aka puente olveira is 9km over hill. It is then 3.5km along road to Oliveira and the big sign that lets you know you're in town. O'Logoso is a beautiful 6.3km and 1hr 20. Raise a glass to Simon and his 61st. Optional walk up to Volkar exbo. June 10th - Saturday walk 12km from Olveira or 6km from O'logoso to Casa a Pichona - Optional walk to Dumbria bar round trip 5km OR walk to CEE - CASA A PICHONA looks destined for the dusty bin (!) Its so beautiful but my timings are off. We decided to stop at casa manola so casa A Pichona is back June 11th - Sunday walk 17km to CEE stay in flat for 2 days. June 12th - Monday walk 16km to Fisterra then 3km to Finisterre and back to bus for 15mins/3 hour bus back to CEE/Santiago. June 13th - Tuesday early bus from CEE at 08:43 arrives Santiago at 10.45. We have a lot of time to get off one bus go to a cafe then get on the airport bus. June 13th - Flight 13.45 to Edinburgh, need to leave Santiago on bus by 12 - it takes on average 7 minutes to clear customs and therefore dont arrive later than 13.15, or 12.30 bus....home for 3pm!

Jimmy Camino June 2023

Flight times are (were until the 2 days before cancellation call....ed)  great and we arrive in Santiago about 2pm for the hostal Centro. (Try Santander now and a bus via Oviedo luarca and ribadeo on the Northern Camino......)

If it's closed we will go across the street until we can access at 3pm.

Next day we have to be out and down the road by 7am.

I've a cafe earmarked for breakfast and we should be at Costa do cano for 7.45.

I'm panicking about times as that's what planning for 30° is all about. It's an exposed route on the way to Negreira but to be honest the first 3 hours are fine.

If we get to carballo before12 then we will make Negreira before 3 no problem. 

Pontemaceira is closed on a Wednesday so we might take a carry out from carballo. We won't from Bar O 79 as we've a hill to climb for 2.5km before we get to carballo cafe. If we are here by 10 we've cracked it. 

Cafe Oso is 4km before and well worth a stop. The picture below is carballo cafe.

Equally there's another 1km later that Stu and I stopped at in January.

It's also got a water fountain.

You go down a steep hill avoid cars running you down then climb into a forest road and in and out the dusty bluebells.

So Thursday we head to Santa marina although the current forecast suggests we stop at this brilliant place just before. When we did the walk in April we were 2 hours out of Negreira and we finally hit the deadbeat cafe. The next 2 hours took us to a great place. 

The grill was about to get fired up and the chops were going on.

We chose not to stay there as at the time out energy levels said it's only 14km.

We walked another hour and truth be told it was a wonderful mistake as we discovered the albergue Santa marina but we were goosed. 

We walked out the next day will smiles on our faces.

the road was very exposed and if we had walked it we would've encountered proper problems. Instead we started our walk before 9 and could walk no problem and arrived at Oliveira in an hour or two.

We left and arrived shortly after at Oloroso. That looked a good place to stay and from there walk to casa a pichona.

Saturday is now casa a Pichona so I've got my picture above not below. Ha ha, O logos is below.

From there we can do Muxia or Cee and my tip is CEE. We walk about 15km and as it's morning we can do it no problem. My plan would be to change it after 5 mins as it a Camino but we shall see!

Sunday Muxia or Cee. Monday an easy walk to finisterre and a bus back to Santiago 

Monday Cee or fisterra and bus to Santiago

The smart option is to book 2 nights in CEE and walk to fisterra and finisterre then bus back.

Tuesday fly lunchtime 13.25 get 11am bus out arrive airport 2 hours early!

Day 5 Muxia to finisterre

We didn't make it as far as finisterre as we were staying in CEE we took a detour courtesy of a kind donativo place and €50.

That was where it ended but the beginning was lots of fun too. The logging took our last ounce or 28 grams of strength and also €0.70 as the juice machine made us think we could get sustenance.

We started out in our apartment in Muxia fully aware there were few stops so we better go to the supermarket. 

Simon had gone the night before and with the exception of opening the flat door it was superb. 

We had milk for our cola cao and nothing to put in our sandwiches, except the bananas we ate at breakfast. Oh and some bags of his favourite mouth drying crisps 🤣

We made the usual Camino mistake and ignored our advice from the night before. There's bound to be somewhere.

Ah yes. Bound to be. That's when St Jacques laughs and doesn't provide!

We walked and took pictures. It's a stunning walk out along the shore and the road for about 2km.

We walk up past the parador on the hill.

We walk past the stadium and then it seemed, we walked up.

We walked up and up and up.

We continued to walk up and up and up.

Simon and Stu walked up and up and up.

I started lagging behind and taking pictures and eating my mints. On the plus side I got some lovely pictures but time was ticking along.

We got to the top of the hill after a few hours and arrived in the red herring town of Frixe an hour later.

We walked down past the pink house.

The we went to the hotel who said no coffee here and then back past the pink house.

Then we left to go to Lires.

We'd bumped into our new South Korean pals a bit earlier and I can't say how happy we all were to meet them again on Noia. Simon said they were on our bus from fisterra but as we joined at Cee we just sat down and never acknowledged them. We can be so ignorant, a great pilgrim trait.

We were past it when we arrived in Lires but found solace in the food and drink. No pictures as we were eating. Suddenly energy let us see the sea views.

When we left we had a good clip about us but as we were debating road or trail you sensed the worst.

Another stop saw us enjoying the shade.

Water was low and time was high. It was now 4pm and we had planned to taxi.

We were 8 km from Cee. We paid €50 and were happy to get to a restaurant in CEE.

Day 1 to Negreira

We strolled down to the cafe and sat down.

Great breakfast and ready to rumble.

Cross the street into the park.

Up the hill down the steps, down the hill, up the hill

yep a lot of strolling and unlike January a lot of cafe. It was great to stop and the only sadness was the riverside bar is reservations only and closed tuesday and wednesday so one for a reverse camino where we arrive at 2pm on a monday! We arrived at our flat which was opposite the language school. I gave it a superb review as it was superb. 3 of us each paying 30 euro was luxury.