Day 48 - The Battle

Thu 2nd Nov., Ourense to Cea, ~23klms, ~27,000 steps

Today the Sun God and the Rain God battled above us. As a mere mortal, who am I to adjudicate the winner, so let me say that it was a draw.

The above comment should be sufficient to reveal that we did indeed walk today. After sleeping nearly all day yesterday Janet was back to her normal "up and at'm" self, and so at a little after 9:30, fully rugged up, we walked down the main shopping street of Ourense, across the bridge, up the hill, and West. Fully rugged up means various layers of warm clothes, and our newly acquired waterproof pants to go with our raincoats. The only unprotected parts are hands and feet, with the latter supposedly protected by layers of goretex.

The rain came and went, always somewhere between a light drizzle and a more steady watering, but never approaching a downpour. The first hour or so, out of Ourense and half-way up the hill was the most intense, and after that it was a here and there affair, intermingled with actual sunshine. And as long as we are warm and mostly dry these aren't particularly unpleasant conditions.

Beyond this, it was just a walk. Mostly a very beautiful one, and occasionally quite wet, not from the rain but from the sometimes flooded pathways. It rains more in Galicia than anywhere else in Spain, so a few wet paths are to be expected. A few photos of the day follow.

Leaving town, and adios to the Halloween giants. But also see my ps*

Left or right? We chose right ...

The Royal Camino, a not uncommon street name

See, blue sky

Adios Ourense, and a farewell selfie ...

Cool numbers ...

Squaresville. Modern, and rather unusual.

Now that we are in Galicia we are well and truly in the land of the horreos. Fascinating structures, all with the same basic design, but of various sizes and in different states of repair. More about them here.

Above: some of our dry walking paths. Natural beauty abounds

None shall pass. Look closely at what the bottom of this "gate" is made from.

None shall eat (and none shall feed to inlaws 😀 ).

Rough hewn granite trellising. Don't see much of that around Margaret River.

The very beautiful 13th century (I think) bridge. Ah, but wait ...

Following are a few water videos, just for fun ...

The last one's the real fun one. That roadway was on the other side of the old bridge, and was fully flooded. The only way through was to go bush through the brambles and the bracken, and then climb through the hole in the fence (at the 9 second mark) and then jump across a ditch onto a "dry" patch. Guess how all that went??

To finish the photos. More blue sky. Very near to our evening destination.

Easy day tomorrow - he he ...

ps - Last night I learned a little more about the Halloween festivities the previous evening. It is sometimes called Samaín (and other spellings). See here and here for some more info. Ain't travel grand??