Day 14 - Arzúa to O Pedrouzo

2 October 2018

12.3 miles in 4 hours 14 minutes (including breaks)

Today's journey took us through lush forests and over rolling hills on a short walk of only 12 miles. We are now within a day of completing our journey to Santiago de Compostela. Just one more day and this pilgrimage will become just a memory.

Sandy and I are a little sad that this fun adventure will be ending so soon. We have been on the trail for 2 weeks at this point, and it just went too quickly.

We will have sweet memories of the time we have spent on this 200-mile journey through northern Spain.

We felt dwarfed by the size of the trees in the forest today.

Early morning light is magical as it streams into the forest.

Some parts of the forest have been planted with eucalyptus trees from Australia, like these shown here. Eucalyptus grows fast and can be harvested sooner than most other woods. It is just a little strange to see eucalyptus forests growing in Spain.

Throughout our walks, we see otherwise nice rock houses that have been abandoned as people move on to the big cities.

They are still building new houses in this region out of rock using centuries-old methods.

The modern houses we see here that are built out of rock are gorgeous.

As we walk each day, we come across cafes in tiny villages every few miles. Many of the pilgrims on the trail stop to get breakfast and use the bathrooms. We end up passing many of these pilgrims and moving ahead into less-congested areas of the trail while they take their breakfast breaks.

Water is available in ancient fountains at many places along the way.

Unfortunately, not every fountain works. This one was dry right when we needed a refill.

There are so many interesting things about the private homes in this region. This family's coat of arms in stone was mounted on the side of their home.

We found this shrine out in the forest. There are surprises like this all along the Camino.

We later came across this tavern in the forest, a beer garden with walls made of empty beer bottles.

Our final meal on the trail was at this restaurant where they first seared the meat, then brought out a super-hot stone platter on which we finished cooking the meat on our table. This was a fun last dinner before our final push into Santiago tomorrow. 

Progress Map