Yay! I Made It! Camino Ingles Day 2

September 7, 2017.  Neda to Pontedeume 11.3 miles (18.19k). This is according to my phone. John Brierley’s book and Eroski Consumer have it at 16km. 

Beautiful walk today, but I have to say that I’m beat!  Lots of up hill and down hill. Doing this without any training while working a desk job has really taught me a thing or 16. 

I was able to get going a bit earlier than yesterday.  It’s hard though because the sun isn’t even up until 8:00amish.  I really don’t like walking in the dark because I feel like I miss a lot.  Here are some pictures of the Neda Estuary that I might have missed if I’d left in the dark.

Below are two of the maps that I’m following (from J. Brierley’s book).

The elevation map. It looks like I’ll have some ups and downs today!

My first indication this morning that I’m back on the Camino.

This was a great walk on a somewhat chilly morning.  The walking path starts out on granite and cement and eventually changes to a boardwalk which goes through the salt marsh.  There were lots of walkers out, some were older couples, some were walking their dogs.

I had to look it up, but marismas means salt marsh.

No one was using it, but it looks like a good exercise course. 

A look back at some interesting buildings, including a church on the Xubia side of the estuary.

It seems that I spent the night in the town of Xubia, but in no time at all I was in the town of Neda.  Here’s the narrow lane that I walked in on; a minute later a car came through and nearly scared the s#%*t out of me since the lane is so narrow and I’m so wide (with my backpack).  I also took this picture of a cemetery.  

Not too long afterwards I climbed my first hill of the day which ended at the sign for Silva.

Lots of gardens.  Can you see the green beans?

The cat below didn’t even look up when I talked to him!  One of several cats and dogs that I saw today.

If you remember from yesterday, there were two shortcuts to get from Ferrol to Pontedeume which avoid Neda.  Here’s what option two looks like from this side of the Ria (estuary).  You can see San Martín de Xubia to the left of the big bridge with the pedestrian bridge in between.

Yay, I made it to the top of the first hill!

Lots of quiet roads with nice homes,  beautiful plants and an area to wash your clothes!

Where I live the plant above is an annual and comes in a 4 inch pot.

I had to huddle underneath one of these in a cold, wet day to have some breakfast.

Below is a picture of option #1 from yesterday. 

This is a good picture since it also shows the Port area of Ferrol on the left. From there it was all downhill to Fene where I took a short break and also found a pastry store.

Here’s a picture for my mom!

Boy I look hot and sweaty!

I had a piece of tortilla with chorizo, tomato, orange juice, but didn’t eat the bread. The pastry looks funny, but it’s a chocolate covered elefant ear.

The next stage was another hill going through woodland with the scent of eucalyptus in the air and then a series of country roads.  I saw lots of fruit including lemons, kiwi, apples and grapes.

The grapes made me think of home and my grape arbor.  I had a great time looking at all of the arbors that were in this area!

I finally got to Vilar do Colo! I was tired, hot and sweaty.  Well, really mostly hot and sweaty. I had an Orange Fanta.  Second soda for me in about two years!

Downhill again to get to the beach town of Cabanas.  Very nice walking except for a stretch along the side of a busy road.  Not really dangerous, but it made me nervous.

A much bigger geranium than what I normally see at home!

My first view of Cabanas in the photo below. I really tried not to look since the anticipation of arriving can make this part of the walk seem to be the slowest.

Another short rest after walking down hill.  For me the down hill is almost as difficult as the uphill!  Then I finally arrived in Cabanas and could see across the bridge to Pontedeume.

I made it!!!!

This reminded me a bit of the Caminho Portuguese da Costa.  We would always end our day by walking over a bridge to our destination.

Once I got there I realized that something was going on in town.  It turns out that September 7-11 is their Pear Festival.

Very very busy, but I managed to get a clean, safe, economical room.  It’ll be noisy tonight, but that’s ok.  I might slip down to the bar and get some orujo or maybe cuarenta y tres licor. Below is a picture of my room after I made myself at home. 

It turns out that I really didn’t have a dinner.  I wasn’t really hungry which isn’t a great sign.  I do think that I got enough calories though since I got an ice cream cone and this…….

Tomorrow I have to decide whether I’m going to Betanzos or stopping early in Miño.

I’m inching my way along.  I think that it’ll depend on how I feel. Miño has a nice beach!