Day 38 – Santiago de Compostela to Negreira

I wasn’t sure we’d be walking today but we did! After a fair bit of relaxing, including the extraordinary pilgrim’s mass, we had concluded we were going to have to catch a taxi today due to Al’s knee. However the combination of rest, cream, massage and drugs must have worked because when we woke up at around 8am, the swelling had reduced and Al decided she could walk! A quick breakfast and a quick snap of a taxi number on the way out and we were on our way by just before 9am! We hadn’t gone too far when we spotted a farmacia (they were all closed on Sunday) and bought some kinesiology tape – we had been searching high and low for this tape since starting the Camino and, once again, had just about given up when Al said “… fysioterapia…” and the pharmacist knew what she wanted and, even better, had some. So, armed with taxi phone number and rock tape we set off!
The exit from Santiago is much nicer than the entrance, to the point where I would recommend making sure you come from Finisterre, Muxia or Ferrol. Also, the number of walkers had dropped – more than on the Norte but way less than the Frances! We had beautiful views of Santiago on the way out and then went over the hill and into the next valley. Al had an elastic brace on and it helped on that flat and uphill but downhill still caused a fair amount of pain. We stopped just over the Rio Roxos for a peach and a break then up and over into the next valley. We stopped at the valley floor to put the rock tape on, which made things much better for Al. A really steep ascent got us over the hill to Trasmonte where we had a beer and lunch then slowly downhill to what the book describes as the prettiest town on the Camino – Ponte Maceira – which is hard to disagree with. We had another beer and set off for our destination. It was really hot by now but the first half of the last leg of today’s journey was in shade along the lovely river the Ponte took us across. The last km or so was really hard going in the heat but not long after 4pm we made it into Negreira. An unexpected 21kms today and now 844 in total! Expecting 38 degrees tomorrow so we may make use of the taxi numbers!