Ribadavia to Feas (29 km)

There was fog till about noon! It made things kind of ethereal. Today was almost all off-road, filled with rivers, vineyards, forests, and a killer ascent at the end. My GPS stopped recording, so I am not totally sure about the ascent, but the person whose tracks I followed recorded 900 m up and 500 down. That’s a lot for these old bones. But I’m still so grateful that even though I am definitely slowing down, I can still enjoy every day and relish the sensation that I’ve really given it my all.

So many of these villages are in the process of depopulation. Most have some really nice fixed up houses, but those houses do not seem to be inhabited. I’m assuming they are summer homes, homes that once belonged to the great grandparents and that no one wants to live in year round. Then there are the totally falling down houses, and then there are some in between where the year-round residents live. Even in these tiny hamlets, the bread truck comes, the frozen food guy comes, the produce guy comes. Yesterday I coincided for about two hours with the Repsol truck. He was bringing those gas canisters. His horn blaring as he came through, people put out their empty canisters and he made the exchange. He was on the same route as I was apparently, so I had a honking horn symphony to listen to through four or five villages.

I’m in a very nice Casa Rural, O Forno do Curro. There’s an old stone Forno/oven that was the place where all the villagers came to bake their bread. The only establishment with food is about a km down the road. I came in this afternoon on my way to the Casa Rural, just to confirm I would be eating dinner here. At that time about 30 men were at different tables, all playing dominoes. The bar owner, a woman, told me that the men come to play dominoes after lunch, while the wives were cleaning up and doing housework. But that the women would be in to play cards this evening. And sure enough they are here.

Dinner is tomato and cheese salad, delicious seeded brown bread, eggs from the coop, and real french fries. Thankfulness overflowing.

But as I was leaving the Night Shift dominoes guys arrived.Read more