Santa Marina to Cee - new resolutions

We left Santa Marina just after dawn this morning - a beautiful sunrise and not raining.
The air was cool but perfect for walking in a t shirt.
Early landscapes were misty and very quiet. Having not walked a ‘Brierley’ stage yesterday we have been pretty much alone - only one other walking pilgrim so far.
However, despite all the loveliness I’m feeling very sad. The agriculture here is basically a mono culture of maize - I’m guessing to feed the cows, who are horribly confined in dark smelly barns. Unlike the countryside before Santiago where the cows were grazing in the open, here there are no fields with cattle - only endless fields of sweetcorn interspersed with huge barns full of dirty looking cows. I will have to be vegan again I think - no option when I have things like that imprinted on my memory!
Anyway things improved after walking through Obreiroa and Hospital. We were into wild moorland with not a sweetcorn plant to be seen. Just heather and pines and huge rocks - the latter useful for sitting on to eat our lunch. Lunch was two days old Tetilla and bread, crisps, bananas and Coca Cola. I was so hungry and still had about 15km to go.
It was a long day - 33km in all - but lovely second half. Very quiet. There were two tiny chapels (Capela das Neves and Capela De San Pedro Mártir) with healing waters where we took a break briefly (I threw some on my head!!) but as we were still quite a long way from Cee at 3pm we really had to keep moving.
The final downhill into Cee was steep but the view of the sea made it exciting. My feet were beginning to complain a bit by this time and by the time we reached the hotel I was ready to drop. The room was comfortable and after a shower and a short rest we went out to explore the town, have a drink and find something to eat.
Most places were closed as it was Sunday but we found a bar for a glass of wine and then a great restaurant with gourmet level veggie food (thanks again to Happy Cow) so I was happy.Read more