Day 45 - Camino Finisterre: Negreira to Olveiroa

Date: Monday July 29

Start:  Negreira, Galicia

End: Olveiroa, Galicia

Daily Mileage: 21.4mi (34.4km)

Total Mileage: ~556.4mi (~895km)

Today was a tough one. Long. HOT. Kind of boring, really.

For all of those reasons, I’m tired. I’m going to keep this post pretty short. I know what you’re thinking... 

Thank God. 

You’re welcome.

As planned, we got an earlier start this morning, leaving Negreira around 7:15am in anticipation of what would be a very hot day. 

Hiking out of town, we passed through the arched walls of the Pazo do Cotón, another of the regional manor houses. This one was also built in modern times, but believed to have medieval origins. 

The temperature of the early morning hiking was nice – already in the low 70s, but without the sun beating down on us yet, this was fairly comfortable. The route included some trails through the woods, which sunlight slowly filtered through as it came up over the eastern hillsides. 

Through the morning we would see several pilgrims hiking in the opposite direction to us. I had recently heard that it was becoming popular to not only hike out to the coast – to Finisterre or Muxia, or both – but to also return to Santiago on foot, once again. 

Just to be clear, we are not doing this. Once we get to Finisterre, we’re getting a bus back to Santiago. 🤣

Around four miles into the hike, we caught up with a couple other pilgrims on trail, stopped at a water fountain along the route. Shawn was already chatting with them as I hiked up. Both from the U.S., they had met on the Camino Francés and were now traveling as a part of a larger group, some of whom they were trying to meet up with along the route this morning. 

The four of us set out from the water fountain together, Shawn hiking ahead with the guy, John, while I hiked with the woman, Lexi. We chatted for a bit. She was from California, but lived in Texas. The Camino Francés had been her first long hike and, traveling as a single woman, she had chosen that route for the exact reason we had avoided it: the potential for a lot of people. This had worked well for her and she had found her ‘group’, so to speak.

She seemed interested in the Camino del Norte only insofar as comparing the distance with what she had done on the Camino Francés. She also seemed quite interested in where it started. Shawn mentioned to me later that, before I had arrived at the water fountain, she was very keen to note to him that the Camino Francés had started in France, so she had hiked from France. A fact that, given the name of the route, most people knew. 

She was nice, though my conversation with her seemed disjointed. I would ask where she was from, then she would ask whether our route had started in France or not. Like she was really trying to get to the bottom of this. I told her it started on the border with France and Spain – we had started on a bridge that was on the border. She had follow up questions. After a bit, we came to an incline and she announced that she was going to slow down a bit, which was fine with me. I said something like “I’m sure we’ll meet again,” and then kept walking. I was hoping that we would not meet again. 

Less than five minutes later, however, we were all together again as we stopped at an albergue cafe along the route to get a quick breakfast. After finishing their own breakfasts, John and Lexi waved goodbye and said they were “going to find their friends”. Okay bye. Lol. 

At this point, now on an extension route to the coast, most people were fresh off a longer Camino to Santiago. They already had their tribes of people. To some extent, their cliques. The social groups seemed to be a product of albergue living. Individuals would find their ‘people’ and kind of move down the route, staying in the same albergues, hiking with/around each other each day, or meeting up in the towns along the route.

As Shawn put it, “I like having a social group, I just don’t want to bunk up with them at night.” So true. 

Long hot road walks – major CDT flashback territory.

Shawn had at least had a far more normal conversation with John, who seemed much more down to earth. He lived a bit of a nomadic life like we did and this was actually his third time hiking the Camino Francés. We have now met several people that have repeated that route multiple times, so there is obviously something special that calls some people back time and again. 

After our tortillas and agua con gas, we were back on the road. Today would be like many of our recent days, a mix of paved roads, gravel roads, and a bit of trail, though far more pavement than yesterday. Also far less shade. And rarely even a hint of breeze, the windmills high atop ridgelines in the distance at a complete standstill. The climbing sun felt like it was enveloping us. Heat rose from the pavement, seemingly smothering us from all directions. In short, we were very hot.

At one point in the day, another pilgrim along the route had said hello and asked where I was from. I told him the U.S. and then asked where he was from. “Here,” he said, “Galicia.” Ahhh. I told him it was very beautiful. Then I said, “It’s also very hot here right now.” – “Thank you,” he responded. Hmmm... communication breakdown? You’re welcome, I think?

It certainly didn’t help that this was one of our longer days along the route to Muxia/Finisterre, meaning we were still out hiking during the heat of the afternoon. By 10am, temps had risen into the 80s, with most of the afternoon a stifling 86-87ºF (30-31ºC).

Most of the day would be through rural areas and farmland – lots of corn and dairy cattle. It was a busy day for tractors along the route. The day also brought a decent amount of climbing, with undulating hills that would total an ascent of nearly 2,700 feet (823m) by the end of the day.

And so, the day carried on like that, scorching sun through exposed farmland punctuated by short moments of relief in small bits of shade. Tractor dust. Cow moos. Somewhere around the halfway point of the day, we stopped along a shaded river bank where several other hikers were also taking a break. We pulled off our shoes and waded into the cold river. Though fleeting, the water felt good on our aching feet and hot skin.

Luckily, there were at least a few cafes/restaurants along the route to stop for cold drinks. Other than our breakfast stop around five miles in, we also stopped at cafes a bit after 13 and 17 miles. In addition to getting cold drinks, it was just nice to have a short break out of the sun. The heat had mostly dampened our hunger, so other than a few snacks, we made our way through the day with mostly cold drinks and water bottle refills. 

Inglesia de San Cristóbal de Corzón

It was just after 4pm when we arrived in Olveiroa, a small compact village with little beyond a couple of albergues/pensións, their associated restaurants, and some homes. Feeling like wilted flowers in the sun, we went straight to our albergue. Shawn had booked a private room which had AC, a total luxury along the trail. Many nice hotels don’t even have this option, let alone small rooms in pensións, but we were very grateful. 

We turned on the AC and drew the shades, like a couple of vampires. If not for our hunger, we would not have left the room again. However, after nice cool showers (by choice), our stomachs would no longer be ignored. Luckily, we only had to walk about 10 meters to the restaurant next door. 

Shawn was happy to see cachopo on the menu, a filling dish that we’ve learned is almost always made for sharing. This one was no exception. Absolutely huge. After dinner with several more cold beverages, it was back to the bat cave for sleepy time.

The heat today had totally zapped us. While there were a few good views, most of the day had been a pretty boring slog down long shadeless stretches of gravel and paved roads. Major CDT vibes. Crossing our fingers that tomorrow is a bit more interesting! And much cooler!