Camino Primitivo, part 7: A Fonsagrada to O Cádabo

Julio in the mist at the hospital chapel

I’d like to say that the next day started bright and sunny. I can’t though because it was more of the same, I put my umbrella up as we left the albergue. The other pilgrims had capes of various sizes and colours and everyone had the same ‘oh well, what can you do’ expressions. Breakfast was from the coffee machine in the albergue, when I say coffee machine I don’t mean a Gaggia, no, a Nestle special accompanied by a Kit Kat from the other machine. No matter, we thought, there’s a town just 8km away, we’ll have a late (or Spanish) breakfast in a bar there. More wandering through pine plantations and muddy tracks occasionally looking up to see if there was a view (not often) and then looking down to avoid the biggest deepest puddles and mud pits. The path follows the main road to Lugo but is a little more direct, which means there’s a steepish slog up to Montouto, a pass where there are the remains of old hospitals. I’m not sure why they put hospitals in these places, maybe to ensure that when people reached them they’d need hospitalizing. The hospital at Montouto dates back to the 14th century, founded by Pedro the cruel (great name, I can imagine it “Sire, what name will you be known by?” “Well, I think… ummm… cruel, yes Pedro the cruel… it’s got a certain ring to it no?” “Ummm….” “off with his head!”). We arrived in Paradavella hungry and ready for a coffee or something warming but had forgotten that it was Good Friday. The bars were shut. An old lady peered out of her doorway and looked anxiously at the three of us, Julio asked if there were any bars nearby. Four kilometres along the path. Ah well, a museli bar and a gulp of water would have to do for the time being. The path joined the road and then left it, joined it again and left it. Julio began saying phrases like ‘me cago en la puta que le parió’ (I crap on the whore that gave birth to him: quite strong language) when it became clear that the path went steeply down only to go steeply up later to rejoin the road.

Caldo, chorizo, pan, vino = happy

Finally we rounded a bend and saw a village, Julio, stomping ahead in the rain, turned and waved jubilantly. An open bar. We shucked our things and sat, it was only 12:30 but we were going to eat anyway, who knew when another bar would present itself? What have you got? we asked the old chap behind the bar. He indicated to the back, I’ll ask the boss. We’ve got caldo, he said. We nodded, caldo is good warming stuff. I can give you a chorizo too. Warm? we asked. He shook his head. It would do. We sat. His wife bustled out and said she’d make us a tortilla with chorizo. So pretty soon the table filled up, galician bread is thick and crusty, you could live on that and wine, and we set about the doorstops. The chap brought out wine in tankards, Julio asked for some soda (he likes his wine weak and fizzy) and the owner shook his head and said that wasn’t possible, you couldn’t do that to his wine. Good food, good caldo (according to the guidebooks they use grelos, which are turnip tops) good chorizo, good tortilla, acceptable wine. Then we asked for some cheese and the guy brought out a half round (about two kilo’s worth) and a knife and said have what you like. We finished with a coffee and an orujo (again, the bottle dumped on the table with a shrug). Replete, we asked for the bill, seven euros a piece. So full and happy we headed back into the gloom.

Happy walkers but wet

From this point on the Camino Primitivo is much less up and down, the paths improve a bit, less mud, more towns. We rolled into the albergue at O Cádabo at around 3:30 and had a little siesta. The houses in this part of Galicia are traditionally made or clad in pale grey granite which looks incredibly depressing in the rain. In fact, they use granite here as fenceposts instead of wood, probably because of the speed of rotting the damp climate would cause. We strolled around the town (took about five minutes) and decided on a place for dinner, ate and went to sleep.