Day 32: Castromaior to Vilalba

October 13, 2022. Rest, recover and reflection day.

After our evening in a beautiful albergue (Spanish term for a group hostel), I needed a light hiking day and some time for rest and recovery. I loved the hostal experience for many reasons, but getting very little sleep was not one of them. O Xistral, mentioned yesterday, is a work of passion and art. Our host, Jaime, bought a 200 year old country house in poor shape, virtually a bunch of stone walls ready to fall down, and spent 5 years, from 2012 to 2017 remodeling the property. In 2017 he started accepting the first Camino guests. The photos of him doing the remodeling work himself are truly inspiring, and he creates a remarkably warm albergue experience. Last night, our table of six had people from Australia, Germany, Ireland, and Bolivia in addition to the two of us. It was an animated discussion and much fun. Jaime made us a 3 course dinner, ending in flan.

A table set for eight guests.

I was grateful that we had a short day planned today. This was necessitated by coordinating the stop nights in places with services. There are many tiny towns here with little to nothing to offer to a traveler, so it’s necessary to take a long term look when planning. Now we have every day planned out until we reach Santiago next week.

We headed out from the albergue to find that we were in a thick mist of a mountain cloud. We failed to take down our drying clothes so everything was wet. Alice was frustrated and we made it our goal to make sure we find a laundry in today’s overnight town.

We headed out into the wet mist and gradually over two hours it began to lift. We are now on a high central plane, and the walking is easy. There are very few rises or descents in our walking. The trail is wide, well maintained and covered by a canopy of trees. As we came to a bridge there was a young man who had set up his wares. Jesús is a wood carver from this area, and sells them at that juncture of the Camino. We stopped and got some items which are light and small enough for us to take home as gifts.

Heading on, we continued along tranquil paths. I notice that property lines here are now demarcated by stone walls, but not stacks of stones as you might see in many places, but plates of stone arranged on end.

Another feature I see more and more frequently are ”cruceiros” or crosses on tall stones placed near intersections of paths or roads. They tend to be quite tall and narrow. They can be very simple or have many figures gathered around the cross. Reportedly, the earliest Galician cruceiro is from the 4th Century.

At times the cross is ever so simple, but on a vertical slab of stone.

A common question, is, what is the Spiritual or other gift that you are discovering through doing the Camino? As I reflected on this question, I have to admit I do not identify with the medieval Christian observance of the cruceiros, or the ancient church images and statues. I do find that the Camino strips away a lot of unnecessary concerns, such as acquisition of objects or possessions, worries about distant plans, or other complex concerns we often carry around inside of ourselves. It gets more boiled down to having warm, dry clothes, keeping one’s feet in good condition so as not to be too painful, and to get food and lodging. For much of man’s history this has occupied much of people’s daily struggle. And of course this leaves space for concern for one’s partner and fellow pilgrim, and openness to people on the way. Each of these people offer me gifts every day, and then there are the gifts of the Camino in terms of the natural beauty and challenges overcome.

We approached the town of O Campo do Cristo, where we stopped at a little bar for cafe con leche and chocolatine ( chocolate filled croissant). The place was buzzing with Gallego conversations as we entered and the young man was very kind and attentive as I ordered. Later he offered to stamp our Camino ßpassports. A British woman stopped in who was doing the Camino in reverse and inquired about the correct direction to go. We set her on the right way and let her know about our albergue.

We noticed an unusual cemetary 50 meters away and went to explore. It was surprising how tall all of the crosses on the graves were.

It was not much longer before we entered the rather grey and boring town of Vilalba where we were staying at a Pension. The receptionist surprised me with his perfect English. Soon it was clear why — he was from London. We got in our rooms early which allowed for a short cat nap and showers before catching lunch. The rest of the day was focused on laundry, clothes and groceries. We are ready for the next few days.

We have about 7 days to go, and the weather is turning typically rainy, windy and colder. We’ll batten down the hatches and get this done.