Caldas de Reis to Padrón (again)

I wasn’t up quite early enough for the first bus from Padrón back to Caldas de Reis, and so I had time for breakfast at the Albergue and then another coffee at the bus station cafe.

However, I was soon back in Caldas and on the Camino. It was very chilly this morning, with a cold mist or fog low over the hills. I needed a second layer on initially but warmed up rapidly once I was walking and as sun began to break through the fog.

Today’s path was mostly in beautiful and green countryside. At first climbing out of the valley, past several tiny villages and then into woodland.

I stopped for a drink and a slice of tortilla at around the 10km point. Shortly after this, the Camino began a long descent into the next valley. There seemed to be lots of Spanish teenagers on the road today, presumably part of a school trip.

At one point, although there was pretty countryside to my right and a tall hedge on my left, the peace and quiet of the former was overwhelmed by the roar of traffic on the motorway on the other side of the hedge! The path then climbed to cross a bridge over the motorway and then briefly ran alongside it before heading further away, where we soon lost the noise of the traffic.

After more ups and downs, the Camino entered the town of Pontecesures, named after the Roman “Caesar’s” bridge across the Rio Ulla. The road ran along the ridge overlooking the river valley before dropping to the river and the bridge. According to the legends about the Translatio of St James, the boat carrying his body arrived here before then heading up the Rio Sar, which meets the Ulla just downstream of the bridge.

One of the alternate routes which form the Camino Português, known as the Variante Espiritual (Spiritual Variant) involves a boat trip along the coast and up the Rio Ulla to land at Pontecesures. Some of my friends took this option, and left the central route just after Pontevedra, and were in fact on one of the boat trips this morning.

From Pontecesures, it’s just 2km, largely following the Rio Sar into Padrón.

I stopped for cold drinks and a brief rest before strolling past the Igrexa de Santiago and last night’s albergue, and heading back to the Estación de autobús.

This time I needed to catch a bus heading to Santiago, but only for 10 minutes or so, in order to get off at O Faramello, a hamlet just off the main road where I am staying tonight.Read more