Puente Maceira to Olveiroa

Written on June 28, 2009......26 miles.

An Horreo..used for drying corn.

A common sight throughout Galicia.

I´m waking up every morning at 5:30 a.m. and have been for a few weeks now. 6 a.m. is a good time for us to start walking.

This morning when I awoke I opened the shutters and right out side the window was a flood light shining on the waterfall. While I was waking up and mesmerized by the waterfall something went flying by the window so fast I couldn´t identify it. I kept watching and there it went again and again. I finally had to get ready so I stopped watching.

As we left Puente Maceira we crossed the bridge over the Rio Tambre. After a short walk we were guided by our friend, the yellow arrow, to go into the forest. We turned our headlamps on and moved along. Soon we came to a clearing and could see daylight...just at that moment we saw a large silver streak go by just like the one I saw earlier at the window. We realized what it was...a large bat. It was the largest one we had seen. And the lightest in color.

As we continued we reached Negreira, a large town. I enjoyed the walk through town with all of its sculptures and artwork. There were quite a few buildings in this area that have roof tops that look like castles. We walked along taking only essential breaks for food and potty breaks. We brought sandwiches from the hostal.

We knew that today would be a long walk. We were focused on getting to Olverioa, but stayed conscious of how we were doing. As we walked up a path I called to Vern have you ever seen this? The path was going straight through a corn field. I was standing in between two rows of corn.

After walking ten miles we found a bar and it was open. As we drank our coffee Jim walked up and Sybelle right behind him. We had a quick break and kept going.

Sybelle is going to stay here in Vilarserio in a schoolhouse. Our guidebook describes it as basic accomodation with floor space and bathroom. The key is with the family in the red house #39. As we passed the schoolhouse we looked for the red house #39. The house is now blue. Sybelle was still eating when we left...we know we´ll see her tomorrow or the next day on the Camino. We walked for a couple of more hours and entered Villar do Castro, a very small village. The Camino turns left into a farm. At that moment a herd of cows with horns and two farmers came toward us. The cows were walking slowly and both farmers had them in a straight line.

We keep walking to Olveiroa, careful not to stop at Ponte Olveira or to turn right to Olveira. We continued to the hostal that a friend told us about.

When we arrived at the hostal we ordered dinner. I ate macaronis, but was too tired to eat the rest...pork chops and bread.

I asked for the food to be packaged and knew that I would have my lunch for tomorrow.