28th May 2024 Portomarin to Ligonde

It was a beautiful morning – clear and crisp as we headed down the hill to find a café for breakfast and found a spot with a great view of the river. I headed up to the counter and waited for my turn and a young Spanish girl came up and started talking to the server who indicated I was next and she would need to wait.  I smiled at him and gave him a big thank you.  It was so nice for someone to see things as they should and be polite.  This was the first time I had seen someone push back and it was a very welcome thing.  You sometimes get the impression that you are a complete inconvenience but many of these towns would not exist without the passing pilgrim parade.  Their level of care is zero as you probably won’t be back and there are many others who will come in and spend their money.

It was a foggy start to the day and we headed through the farming area and the beautiful patches of forest before we spotted the couple from Wales and chatted to them for a while telling them to visit the Castro at Castromaior if they had time.  They hadn’t heard of it and were very happy to follow us at the arrow and to deviate from the Camino by about 100m but to have the benefit of witnessing the ruins there. 

For a bit of history:

This Castro was developed in the Iron Age and was inhabited between the 4th Century BC and 1AD by three different populations until it was abandoned as the Roman forces approached.  The area sits on about 5 hectares and is in a surprisingly good state of conservation.  Some archeological works were done between 2006 and 2010 to discover its entire structure before it was declared an item of Cultural Interest.  It is located in a good position and is elevated for good visibility of approaching enemies.

Once again, we were the only people there apart from the Welsh couple and another couple we had mentioned it to – so hard to believe that nobody really comes here and it is so close to the Camino.  We stayed there for about 30 minutes relaxing and enjoying the sights and the sun before heading off once again.

We found our place for the night about 2pm – right on the Camino (the door literally 2m from the track) and headed inside.  No-one was there so I WhatsApp’d the owner who said we were in Room 1 so we just got the key and went into our room.  The shower was great and there was a washing line outside so all the washing was done and hung outside in the sun.  We spend the rest of the afternoon sitting in the shade and just relaxing chatting to new friends Michelle from Utah and Guy from Brisbane (pronounced Ghee) who were also staying there and we all got along very well.  We thought we would need to walk about 800m to the nearest place to eat but we found a sign saying if we put an order in by 5pm the local bar would deliver so we all agreed that would be a great idea….little did we know that the food and wine wouldn’t be delivered until 8.30pm and Michelle in particular was starving!

It was pounced upon when the lovely gentleman arrived and they even threw in a bottle of wine as a sorry as we didn’t realise they shut their shop at 5pm and re-opened at 8pm otherwise we would have walked down the road.

It was a great night and we all had a lot of fun.  We will catch up again in Santiago as they are stopping at different places from us from now on.