karmavoyager: It’s the little things!

We set off from Baiona a little after seven in the morning. As we walked out of town we had it to ourselves!

Well alright there were a few pigeons about too.

It was another lovely day and we did our best to just enjoy the walk and the countryside.

Being a trained observer it is the little things that he notices which please or amuses our BBF. Today was also an old bridge crossing day for we had a few!

This was the first and we are always on the lookout for an ability to play Pooh Sticks, but this wasn’t one of them.

This was a really tiny house which was smaller than the flat where we live.

This man, for we doubt a woman would come up with this idea, had solved the hedge cutting problem by having an artificial one!

Here we found we walked on slate. We have not seen slate used like this outside of Wales before.

We passed a number of interesting old fountains and laundry areas too.

Sadly this old bridge did not lend itself to being a Pooh Sticks one either.

We tried on this bridge, but we only could find bits of dry grass and we dropped them our one was taken in the wind and deposited in the daisies growing out of it, so that game was declared void!

But on the other side was a bar where we stopped for breakfast.

Here up high and set into the wall was a tiny statue of St James.

In this Brick wall were flowers and we wondered if they were daisies?

On the verges as we walked we often saw mint growing!

Then we came to the best bridge of the day.

An old Roman one we thought.

There was a cross with an altar on it too.

On the other side was a modern bridge and we now observed a group of five package pilgrims, judging by the light weight they carried, crossing that bridge! They did not even see the Roman one!

We followed the signs, but today there were times we missed them and went wrong!

Our BBF stopped to take his jacket off here as it was now warmer and we noticed the magnificent old olive trees, we thought.

The saddest sight of the day was this poor baby bird in the middle of the road! How did it get there?

We interspersed between woods and village paths.

On one house wall we now found many pretty Camino tiles. So we photographed them all, here is a selection:

These all helped mark the Way. At other times we found something different.

Gourds are also a pilgrim sign as they carried water in them.

At one major road junction there were confusing signs one indicated to follow the road across a large roundabout. We found though the usual Camino stone sign which directed us under the road and through this wood. It generally followed a river and was very pleasant.

It led us under another major road and on through the woods.

This sign again showed we were on the right path.

The path rejoined civilisation by the Spanish Space Agency, but now we went wrong as the signs were again confusing!

We saw this faint outline of an arrow and went in that direction for about a kilometre before a man stopped us and gave us to understand we were wrong! We went back and now ignored this arrow and crossed the road to follow another sandy track.

It wound through trees and had the odd bench too, so we used one for a short break and then on we went.

Now came our second mistake! Because our BBF does not walk with his head down, but always looking ahead or generally to the right, his neck is a bit stiff to the left, we missed a stone sign laid flat in the grass in the left and went straight on!

We emerged on a road where there were no signs, but an elderly couple who marched us back down the track to where we had gone wrong! We conveyed our deepest thanks for putting us on the right path again.

It led us to this church where we met an American couple. The woman in Spanish tried to tell us there were clean toilets here!

Once our BBF established that English should be the lingua franca they discussed going wrong. The kindly couple left and our BBF used the said clean toilets!

There were signs to follow again and they took us through villages and woods.

Past a whole pack of dogs on a wall. There were six in all and look harmless here, but when they all started barking, you thought differently.

We always stopped to smell the flowers when we could.

As we went up we were again rewarded with the views.

By the pretty sundial on a gatepost we could tell it was getting on already!

The path was as varied as one could wish for on a long walk. Sometimes in the sun,

and sometimes n the shade.

At this point we caught up with the Americans. They were brother and sister. Dan lived in Missouri and Ann lived in Florida. A suitable bar was found and a tortilla was ordered which they shared. Our BBF drank an isotonic drink and Dan and Ann a whole bottle of red wine. Stories were told and the humans got to know each other. Ann was a very brave lady, over 60 and with a new pacemaker!!! She had already done the Camino Frances in 2016! Dan kindly paid for lunch, so our BBF hopes they meet again to share a glass or two of Vino tinto!

Our way went ever up and again we left the road to go into the woods.

We are not sure what this sign is indicating, do we only have 100 kilometres to go, or are they saying that is the minimum one must walk to get a Compostella?

Another closed church by an interesting cemetery.

We sat under the shade of an old olive tree a little before continuing our adventure.

Then we followed a road under a road before again going of into the country.

We found this church open so you know what we did don’t you? Yes we went inside!

It was dark inside, but our BBF now took us right up to the Altar above which hung a life size cruzified Jesus!

Our BBF said after he had prayed and sang that it was almost as if he was there at Calgary looking up into the Saviour’s eyes. A unique Camino moment.

Opposite the church was a bar so we went in for a cold Fanta and a use of the toilet and WiFi so we could find out where the dickens we were!

While we were there Ann and Dan caught up and also stopped for a cold drink. We led the way again and it was not that easy now.

We don’t have many pictures either as our BBF now kept the phone open on the Camino App to show the way.

We went down hill after the church through fields and emerged on a road which took us into Vigo. Here we followed the Camino path all the way through the park! This was our big mistake.

Eventually we emerged on to a road and a sign took us up hill. Here we emerged by a roundabout which led to a major shopping Mall. We went inside to find WiFi. When we got back on line we now found that our hotel was miles back the way we had come. I was now half past five and our BBF had walked some 23 kilometres. He decided that walking to the hotel was far too complicated and so we took a taxi!