Castro

There is a 12th century monastery about 6 km from the town where I stayed last night, the Mosteiro de Carboeiro. There is also a very popular waterfall (one of the two longest in Spain) about 6 km from the monastery. And with my favorite GPS website, Wikiloc, I was able to find a trail connecting the two.

When I left town this morning, I wasn’t sure where I would end up. And those first 12 km, to the monastery and the waterfall, were just glorious. A couple of unexpected Romanesque churches along the road, a monastery in ruins at a bend in the river, and then the trail to the waterfall. With the amount of rain the past few days, the sound of rushing water was with me the whole way. And then the waterfall- just wow.

After a snack and a long break watching the water come pouring down, I had to figure out what to do. With the help of Google maps I found a way to reconnect with the camino without going back to where I started. This put me in a good place to reserve a room in a casa rural that was about ten kms beyond where I had slept last night. So I am in the Quinta das Maceiras, in the little hamlet of San Miguel de Castro. I am only about 25 km from Santiago, but I am not going very far tomorrow. Because I very much want to visit the inside of the monastery, and it was closed today. So tomorrow I’ll walk a short stage and will get a taxi to take me back!

This was one of those days that I had gauged correctly and ended with me being pretty well drained. I like that feeling —not total exhaustion and ready to drop, but overjoyed to arrive and take off my pack and shoes. 29 km and about 700 m are my new max!Read more