My legs were tired as I walked to the bar for breakfast, not a great sign with ca. 35km to walk, for the most part along roads passing through Ferrol, before joining the Camino Ingles and meeting other walkers.
I left at around 9am, after the customary, coffee, toast and juice breakfast. It was pretty eventless morning as I walked towards Ferrol, a a mix of road through small villages and farmland and dirt tracks through yet more eucalyptus forests. The weather was pleasant again, but there wasn’t much to see, so it was a matter of getting the kilometers on the clock, one by one.
A super irritation when walking are all the barking dogs running along the fences, that keep them in their gardens and yards, hoping this time to find a hole so they can attack. Once one dog starts the whole neighborhood starts. Today I stopped a couple of times and stared at the barking dog. If I stared long enough some stopped, others just barked even more.
I reached Ferrol, a large maritime port, just before lunch time. The outskirts of Ferrol did not look like the kind of place that I would want to visit at night (or during day for that matter). Further in, there were rows and rows of high-rise buildings in different colours. I stopped for a coffee before I reached the estuary. I thought the route passed through the center of town, but evidently not.
I crossed the estuary along a bridge to Fene. The bridge is 3kms long, so it took the better side of 30 minutes to cross looking at the maritime industry along the estuary. A number of ship builders, but also other water based industries. A massive pipe was being built in one of the buildings.
Across the bridge, I walked through Fene, joining the Camino Ingles (that goes from Ferrol across a different bridge, to Santiago). The Camino Ingles follows some small country roads and tracks and I met fellow walkers – something I hadn’t seen since leaving the Camino del Norte on Day 14.
I met an American, Steve, from Wisconsin on the way up a hill. He was 76 and has walked, cycled, run and nordic-skied the world, when not travelling on cruises with his wife or using a round the world flight ticket to visit far off places. We walked together for the last 8-10kms, and before we knew it, we were crossing the bridge into Pontedeume, enjoying a beer before going to each our hostel/hotel.
My hotel has the check in of the future – well at least I’ve never experienced it before. This morning I received a mail with room number and code to unlock my room. I’ve experienced this before. The new was that I had to scan my passport myself and in addition, send a picture of me smiling so they can match the picture to the passport picture. Given my passport is 10 years old and the picture in it about five years older, I have no idea how they compare the two. Well at least they let me in.
I showered and went out to do a bit of sightseeing in an old fishing town with churches dating back to the 12 century, and small tight streets with many squares. It is a nice stop off point. I bumped into Steve again, it’s only a small town, when looking for something to eat, so we ate dinner together.
All in all a good day with sunny weather and temperatures reaching 25 degrees and after several days seeing no fellow walkers, it was also nice to meet and chat.