Week 3. The last leg Portomarin to Santiago de Compostella July 5-9 aprox 95 km's.

Day 13: Thursday July 5 rest and recreation in Portomarin, in the Spanish Province of Lugo. The town was built next to a Roman bridge over the Minho river and rebuilt in the Middle Ages. It has a small population of over 2000.
In the 1960's the Minho river was dammed to create the Belesar reservoir, putting the town under water. The most historic buildings were moved brick by brick and reconstructed  in the new town, including the castle style Church of San Juan.

Church of San Juan.

 Town Mural.

 Main street.

 Municipal offices.

 Very typically Spanish!

 Unusual shopfront and pedestrian archway.

Day 14: Early morning start for our 25 km leg to Palas De Rei, named after the palace of King Witiza ( 702-710 ). The weather forecast is cool, cloudy and rain free and gradually warming up over the remainder of our Camino, good news!

 Early morning leaving Portomarin.

 Rest break.

Village along the way.

 Family cemetery.

 Changes in the countryside.

 Another familiar sight.

Our destination.

Day 15: Palas De Rei to Portela, a little shorter 22.5 km leg in improving weather conditions. Portela is a small outlying area from the town of Ribadiso de Baixo, which is on the outskirts of the large regional centre of Arzua. I selected our stay at Portela for a change from staying in townships. Our accommodation was the rural homestead 'Casa Milia' set in beautiful grounds overlooking the countryside. It was a family property dating back to 1900. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing stay, the only disconcerting factor for me, being the family photo I noticed of a patriarch in a Francoist Falange officers uniform circa 1936+. Not surprising though as the whole northern region of Spain with the exception of the Basque country was extremely nationalist.

   

Leaving Palas Del Rei

Huge ornamental Camino clam shell.

Beautiful medieval bridge at Furelos

   Leaving the midway town of Melide.

Casa Milia.

Day 16: Portela to Pedrouzo aprox 24 km. This leg is the last of a stayover preceding another day on the Camino. The finality of the past 300+ km's is just starting to materialise.

 Early morning rural scenes from Portela to Azura.

 Outskirts of Azura, a not so subtle hint?

Entering the regional town of Azura.

 South Australia's 'Barossa' Valley is named after this.

 A Spanish 'bottle shop'!

Destination Pedrouzo.

Day 17: Our final leg of 20 km's to Santiago de Compostela.

 Getting congested the last few 'k,s' into Santiago.

 I ceremoniously dispatched my trusty broom handle staff into the ground at the base of a Mountain Ash eucalyptus as a fitting resting place. 

 Back into the concrete jungle.

 World Heritage Santiago.

Our arrival!!!

 Ngaire and Kylie.

This has to be seen to be believed!

Some final thoughts and observations:

This was not easy. People have died on this trail. We witnessed  young and old in all sorts of physical and emotional bother. Amazingly we came through unscathed. For myself I suffered a couple of minor blisters that healed quickly, took a total of 4 panadol, rubbed some Voltaren into my arthritic shoulder a couple of times and wore an ankle support once. Although we did less than half of this particular Camino, of which there are numerous through Spain, Portugal and France with this being the most popular, we did the most difficult section except for the Pyrenees over the border from France to Spain.

I found long distance hiking akin to syncing your google account. Once successfully synced, it all happens at the blink of an eye. With feet, legs, lungs and spirit in good shape your ready to 'sync'. With one or more of those out of whack, it becomes a physical and mental struggle.

Altitude hiking can be a bit deceiving as to the degree of difficulty. The starting altitude tells more of the story than the target altitude.

The weather through the mountain regions can be variable. Starting from Leon and for the next 5 days we were hiking in the mid 30's each day which was a challenge. Once into the ranges with a change coming through the nights and mornings were very cool and it rained on and off for 5 days. We got caught in a torrential downpour which soaked us through. Coming down out of the mountains with another warmer change the last 3 days were back to the 30's and staying around that for a while.

Most people are accommodating and friendly and it's fun trying to at least speak some basics of the language. Out of the big towns there is not much english spoken.

The food is fantastic. To sum up in a few words: 'Fresh', simple and varied and when a hard earn't thirst needs a good cold beer, that beer is Estrella-Estrella Galicia! And good wine and G&T's. 

And personally, well that's personal except to say no matter what emotions are stirred up when the mind has plenty of time to reflect, I am comfortable and at ease with myself. The Camino through Northern Spain is not responsible for that but it provided the opportunity for that to occur and so it's all been more than worthwhile especially doing it together with Ngaire.

ADIOS AMIGOS