It's been a few days: lots of catching up to do....
The stage from Puebla to Brollon was mostly flat and rolling, and through farmlands with the occasional small village. Here and there a reminder of where we are, such as this old stone sculpture (on a cross near the village church) of an early pilgrim (note hard-to-see scallop shells on his cloak and hooked walking staff).
It's only 12 km to Monforte, so we were there in the morning. Our plan was to walk another 10 or 14 km and stay at one of the casa rurales (sort of country B&Bs). When we called ahead, though, one was full and the other closed. At the second, because we were pilgrims the owner offered to open up for us, but we didn't feel right about that so declined.
We found a hotel, and had a few hours to explore Monforte. There's a 17th century monastery, now a four-star Parador (fancy hotel), on top of the hill.
Our path out of town would lead over this Roman bridge.
The area near the bridge is quite lovely. We had a great meal in the old part of town, and enjoyed walking around (despite temps in the 90s).
An old gate in the city wall.
It was pleasantly cool and there was a low fog when we left early the next morning.
After several km of road walking, our route took us onto this medieval stone walkway.
The small village of Pineiro has this beautiful fountain: a great spot for a break and to cool off. By this point we'd been climbing steadily for a few hours. You can (just barely) see one of our markers, a painted yellow arrow, behind Ellen's pack.
The path continued winding through farm country, on dirt and old stone surfaces.
After a bit, the marked path became seriously overgrown with a mix of ferns, shrubs, thorny blackberries, and stinging nettles. I wielded my hiking sticks like machetes, but eventually it was too thick to move through and we had to retreat to roads. Now we were off the marked route, and we spent over an hour finding our way back to the camino further along.
All of this adventure hiking and route finding left us seriously behind schedule on what was a long stage. After eight hours of steady walking with but one break, we were still 10 km (with a lot of elevation) from our destination. Fortunately there's a very nice B&B nearby, run by and English and Dutch expat couple, that had been recommended to us. A phone call and Ian was on his way to pick us up. Before long we were relaxing at Casa de Santo Estevo, perched amid the renowned vineyards of the Ribeira Sacra wine region.
Next door to the B&B is a small but beautifully carved 12th century church. They claim that the carvings were done by the same artist who later did the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Although many are worn, it is quite nice. Not the Celtic symbology, common here in Galicia.
And of course scallop shells, symbol of Saint James.
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