Lots of history in today’s walk and also lots of kms!
We’re now mostly getting up in the dark for breakfast because of the need to get our bag out by 8am for transport – they’re never picked up at 8am but few hosts are confident enough to say so!
We’d had a lovely stay at Casa Morgade – lunch, dinner and breakfast all good! The morning was a descent through the clouds past many small and mostly decaying hamlets with no apparent coffee stops until we reached Vilachá just before the end of the descent into Portomarin.
This lovely town is now on the hill above a couple of rivers but was originally in the river valley. Many of the historical buildings, including the church were removed and rebuilt before the original village was flooded when the river was dammed in 1962.
After a coffee in Portomarin, we descended back to the river before a steep climb and a long stretch to the small (and seemingly closed for the season) town of Gonzar. We had planned to stop for lunch but had to settle for a bocadillo at the nearby Casa Ortiz.
Not long after the cafe is a small hamlet, Castromaior, so named because of the nearby ruins of a castro inhabited in the Iron Age between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. We nearly didn’t do the 50m climb to see it because we were pretty exhausted by then but see it we did!
A short, steep climb from there saw us pass the village of Hospital de la Cruz and into our destination, Ventas de Narón. The site was home to a decisive battle between Moors and Christians that stopped the northward advance of the Moors. Not long after that the remains of St James (Santiago) were apparently found and, after Alfonso II confirmed their veracity (not sure how?) and built the cathedral that houses the purported remains. Not long after, he undertook the first pilgrimage from Asturias to Santiago along the route now called the Camino Primitivo, both ensuring the retreat of the Moors as more Christians populated the region and starting the tradition that continues today!
We’re staying off trail at a lovely restaurant and hotel – late start and a short day tomorrow!
24km today with the total now at 674km – the video is in the usual place.
steelewalking 