September 6, 2017. Ferrol to Neda 9 miles today plus some walked yesterday for a total of 9.6 miles (15.5km).
Every time I start a Camino I’m really nervous. Will I be ok, can I do it, will I get blisters, these are only a few of the doubts that I have right before a Camino. This time it’s a bit worse because I didn’t train at all AND I didn’t lose my winter weight.
Today though I had a nice beginning; I slept through my alarm! Also I was very foggy this morning (hopefully the last of the jet lag!). I pulled myself together, set aside my doubts and was able to get going at about 9:15am. I really think that this was one of the latest departures in my entire history!
First step was to find the yellow arrows. Here is a map of the Magdalena section of Ferrol. This area is kind of like an outdoor shopping mall. My hotel was in Almendra street just above it and I walked from there down Terra street this morning.
I always get a bit lost getting out of cities, and today was no exception. Here is a statue that I found while trying to find my way.
Here’s the yellow arrow!
Remember in the Wizard of Oz everyone told Dorothy to “follow the yellow brick road”? Well today everyone told me to keep the water in my right. This meant going through Ferrol’s Port and Naval area.
After that I was in the Carranza neighborhood. They have a wonderful walking area and park along the water. I saw many people with their dogs and a few runners.
I’n not sure what the tree below is, but there were spiney things on the ground underneath.
Also, I’ve been told that this type of sign can give me information on my cell phone? How does it work?
There were even people digging for clams and a windsurf school!
Not too long afterwards I have my first decision of the day; do I go to Pontedeume or not? If you look at a map (from J. Brierley’s book) you can see that there are a total of three ways to get to Pontedeume.
Well, I had decided that I would stop in Neda for the night, so it really didn’t matter anyway. Instead I had a small bite to eat in Gandara.
I could see a McDonalds in the distance, but decided to have a Serrano ham and cheese sandwich and fresh squeezed orange juice.
Gandara was kind of interesting, lots of big furniture stores and car dealerships; I walked by SEAT, Renault and KIA.
The ground changed from granite to boardwalk (memories of Caminho Portuguese da Costa) and there were also people using the side of the path to do some running training and then I ran into a man resting his sheep.
I could not get the sheep to stand still so that I could be in the picture. I must have smelled pretty bad by that time. The old man was very nice and kept telling me to “keep walking with the water on my right.”
The next small town was Naron, which had some nice houses and some gardens. I hope that my mom looks at the pots at the base of the trees!
Now I was close to the second option to Pontedeume and the monastery of San Martín de Xubia.
Here are some interesting animal pictures shortly after the Monastery.
Next I came to this:
I hope that you understand why I’ve been thinking about the Wizard of Oz movie. I started to take the left way, but thought that it was heading wrong so I took the right way; literally and maybe figuratively also.
My phone ran out of memory so no pictures of this section. I ended up asking for some directions to Pension Maragoto from a really nice man. His directions took me off the Camino onto Estrada de Castela. I walked this for awhile, but was ready to stop so checked in instead at the Hotel Kensington.
The room is small, but just right for me and the owner was nice though he wanted to talk about US politics.
A Pilgrims first duty when finished walking is to shower and wash your clothes. Hopefully mine will dry before tomorrow. This morning my underwear was a bit wet and I didn’t feel comfortable pinning it to my backpack to dry!
The next thing to do was eat! I was hungry, but not ravenous. I did have the Menu del Dia (8.5E, I have no idea how much this is in USD).
Pasta soup, chicken and French fries and homemade flan. Well, my day is done…….I did pretty ok in spite of my morning doubts. No blisters so far.
Tomorrow, on to Pontedeume. Hopefully I’ll start earlier.
Rocky Walks 