Escape from Galicia

Day 69 Wednesday 9 May

I mentioned chocolate y churros in yesterday’s blog and for those who don’t know I should say that churros are like 10 inch long, thick as a finger doughnuts and the chocolate is more eaten than drunk, being the consistency of melting tar. Churros are dipped, chocolate is slurped or eaten with a spoon and you need a drink afterwards. Very decadent.

We didn’t really leave until about midday after posting the blog and shopping in Carrefour. Heading northwards a fair way today with a lagoon next to an abandoned village to check out for birdlife on the way. There are lots of abandoned villages dotted across Spain as the drift to the cities continues and they always seem such sad places. I can never stand in one without thinking of all the people who lived their lives there, cared for it and died there, for it to end up a pile of rubble and desolate. Still, it was stuffed full of Lesser Kestrels.

One of the first times we’ve turned up to find our destination site closed but we’re directed to another only six miles away on the bank of a river. Looks very busy but again it’s all static caravans and there are only two of us on site.


Day 70 Thursday 10 May

Our ‘plan’ for this trip has just happened as we went along but this morning with two weeks left we have to decide what we must see and what we think is optional. It seems like ‘only’ two weeks although we’re fully aware that that’s what most people have in total and we’ve been away for 70 days so far. We decide that we must see Galicia, especially the Costa da Morte, the Picos de Europa and a limestone plateau to the east of the Picos for it’s Orchid flora. About three places in the mountains missed out on the way to the coast but we decide on a long drive to get to the Atlantic.

Lovely terraced, lightly wooded campsite above a pale gold sandy beach with views across to the coast running northwards. This is the less than romantically named Coast of Death but when you see the Atlantic breakers crashing in over rocks clearly just under the surface, you understand how it got the name.
Day 71 Friday 11 May

Rain, but we wanted to get out to do something and drove to various local towns on the coast and the famous Finisterre, which isn’t westward facing and the westerly point but south facing. It’s the end of another pilgrim walk and it seems to be the thing that after getting here you either heave your boots over the side or make a bonfire of them. On the way back we stopped at a place called Muxia, which for some reason the Virgin Mary decided to sail to from Palestine in a stone boat. No, I kid you not, and there are pieces of the stone boat in the church to prove it and which are venerated by pilgrims to this day.

I know I get very critical but it is very difficult not to see the silly side of so much, even though we are having a really good time (most of the time).

Here’s another example from the tourist office (a manned and beautifully restored stone building) in Muxia, a small seaside place. Briefly and translated into English. “Ola, do you have any leaflets or information on local walks”. “Are you pilgrims”. “No, we are tourists”. “No, I have no information”. “O, well thank you anyway but tell me does the footpath from the Church (the stone boat one) go to Finisterre “. “Yes, here is a leaflet showing the route”. My case comes up next week ! Now, apart from the case next week bit, that isn’t exaggerated in the slightest from the actual conversation.


Day 72 Saturday 12 May

We decided to drive down to a promontory with lighthouse that’s a good bird site but visibility wasn’t good. This coast was stunning and reminiscent of rugged Cornish coast. There was an area of a couple of hundred circular water tanks covered in black plastic onshore with sea water pumped through. It was a fish farm. Just away from it we decided on the stop for a cup of tea where the map shows a coast path. Amazingly a dirt track road had been built right along this cliff for about 15 miles. Just like deciding to build a road from Swanage to Lulworth right along the cliff edge.

We decided that we had to get away from this wet coast and drove up to La Coruna, a city worth seeing according to our guidebook.


Day 73 Sunday 13 May

Now, we‘ve decided to give La Coruna a miss, it being raining again, and headed out of Galicia eastwards towards Asturias ASAP. The weather hasn’t helped but we were very disappointed with what we saw of Galicia. It has lots of buildings apparently abandoned halfway through being built. It also has lots of buildings whose architects appear to have been unable to get work in Soviet Russia because their work was too ugly. To cap that lots of what we saw was just built on in a sprawling suburb kind of way. Just inland from the Costa da Morte there was hardly a 100 yards without a house (or half finished house) on it.

I’d said earlier how bad signposting directions was in Spain but that was before we‘d been to Galicia, which makes the rest of Spain seem positively reasonable. Compass, map, guide and emergency supplies recommended.

We got out of Galicia at Ribadeo and found a lovely site right on the beach where we enjoyed some late afternoon Asturian sunshine.


Day 74 Monday 14 May

Time for a walk. The coast here is rugged with cliffs that are not too high but being battered by the Atlantic. Very blue, light and dark shades with white horses everywhere and rocks being pounded. It looks great in the sun as we set out. It looks great in the rain 10 minutes later. It looks great in the sun 10 minutes after that. Very good walking and pretty level with for some reason, lots of birdlife. I finally see one of the two birds Heather has that I haven‘t, a Corn Bunting. A very pretty unmistakeable one too.

We get back around lunchtime to find the site half full of the Czech National car hill climbing team. There’s a team coach (with seats, not a person), trailers with cars, motor homes and a small marquee. God knows where they think they are if they’ve been following Galician road signs on the way here.