Campo de Geres to Lobios (25 km)

Every Camino should have a day like this — no towns, no cars, and plenty of mountains, forests and rivers. These are the days that I find most conducive to just thinking things through. No distractions with beautiful scenery as the backdrop.

Since it’s a stage with moderate distance and elevation, I decided I’d wait till after sunrise to leave. I knew that soon after leaving town I would come to the Reservoir and I wanted to see it in daylight. What I had forgotten to figure out, though, was when the sun would get above the mountains. I sat there for a while watching as the sunshine started to essentially fall down over the mountain. Total quiet.

From the reservoir the path entered a forest in trail along side the river. The sound of the water was almost constant, and it was really beautiful. Past lots of Roman mile posts, in fact in one spot there were more than 20! After a couple of hours I emerged from the forest to see the Spain-Portugal border with the closed immigration checkpoints.

The scenery changed dramatically, descending steeply through what was essentially a scrub forrest, nothing majestic like I had been walking through in Portugal. And then once again I was back in a nice forest walking through pines and oaks. I took a long break at a little sitting area next to an old Mill and an old bridge. Again, total quiet.

So here I am back in Spain, and tomorrow I will sleep again in Portugal !Read more