And the sun did come out on Friday. We got up early, set off early and were on the road by 8:40am, which was a bit of a shock for us. Every village we drove through still seemed fast asleep, which made it feel more like 6am. We followed the Ria de Arosa and with the sun glinting on the water and the mist still hanging on the hills, it looked lovely and as we crossed the Rio Tambre the water below looked like glass.
The campervan car park for Santiago de Compostela wasn’t too hard to find and the No.1 bus stopped right beside the parking toll booth. We perambulated around the narrow streets of the old town; I can’t say walked, because we were surrounded by dedicated walkers carrying poles, staffs, heavy rucksacks and a cockle shell.
Driving in to and out of the city we passed many more pilgrims walking the last leg and some of them looked so very tired. We’ve always been in awe of our friends, Ken and Willie who completed two of the 800km Camino trails to Santiago, but now having seen some of the areas they walked through en route, we are super impressed. When we entered the cathedral, we kept trying to imagine how they felt when they finally stepped through the door of the second most important place of pilgrimage in Europe. Half a million pilgrims per year flocked to Santiago de Compostela in the Middle Ages and it’s estimated that about 100,000 per year still do El Camino.
After a good roam around and lunch in a small restaurant near the cathedral, we caught the bus back to Eileen and set off north to the coast. We stopped on route for diesel, some food and yet more cherries and with the aid of really good roads and freeways managed to get to Camping Gaivota at Benquerencia around 5:30pm. We chatted to some English neighbours who were travelling the north coast of Spain in their campervans for 3 weeks; I think they were a little jealous of how long and how far we were travelling. We gave them some tips and maps and they recommended another good campsite further along the coast, which turned out to be the next one we were already aiming for. Then we went for a stroll over the road to the beaches. It’s another lovely coastline and completely unspoilt. It was a shame that the weather forecast was bad.
When we woke up, the weather was more than bad, it was atrocious. We starting planning a day holed up in Eileen, but then decided there seemed no point in staying, despite it being a very nice campsite. So at 10am with the rain still pouring down outside, we made the late decision to make it another driving day, packed up and set off. We stayed on the Ruta de Praias (the beach road) for a bit, thinking we might glimpse some nice views and with the windscreen wipers on high speed, I only just noticed the sign and car park for As Catedrais (The Cathedrals).
Even with the wind pulling at our raincoats, it was a stunning place. We later discovered it had been voted the most beautiful beach in Europe in 2008. Steps lead down to a smooth sandy beach covered in impressive rock formations: stacks, rocks, narrow grottoes, arches and caves. The sea and the wind have sculpted arches over thirty metres high, some of which really do look like the flying buttresses of cathedrals. Tiny mussels and barnacles cling to the lower levels that are obviously washed every day at high tide. Luckily for us it was low tide and we could roam around amongst the most amazing architecture sculpted by nature. Despite the rain there were many other tourists there, all with their cameras out trying to get the perfect shot of every cave, arch and wave.
It was so nice to get back to Eileen, climb back in, shut the doors and feel warm and dry again. We drove along to Ribadeo and managed to buy our fourth footstool; we’ve already destroyed three of them. The label on it says it is ‘Top Quality’ and ‘Sturdy’. It’s also white, so even if this one survives our heavy feet, it’s going to get very grubby, very quickly…… I would also like it noted that hardware stores really are the equivalent of discos…. for old people like us. The freeway took us a fair way further east, along a great stretch of road full of huge viaducts with views of the ocean on our left and the hills and valleys on our right.
We turned off the freeway at Cudillero and parked by the harbour, as no campervans are allowed in through the town. As it turned out, no vehicles of any sort were allowed in town, as they were enjoying a two-day festival for another saint and the fun-fair, market stalls and bunting were all set up for the weekend. The bars looked quite full inside, but we felt sorry for the live band playing on a temporary stage halfway up the steep main street. The singer was scantily dressed and they were belting out more oompah music, with absolutely no-one watching them, or dancing, in the drizzling rain.
It didn’t rain in the night, nor the whole of the next day, so we washed, mended, hemmed trousers, read, pedicured (is that a verb?, it is now) and in the afternoon we slothed by the pool. At Camping Cudillero, we met David and Shirley from Banbury, who have already camped next to David and Nicky when they were all in Salamanca. The next day, with the sun shining again (yippee!) we met the couple from Northampton who had been parked next to David and Nicky back at San Francisco. The Dutch couple who were parked next to us at San Francisco, have also turned up, as have the French couple who were parked next to the Northampton couple. The only ones not here are David and Nicky. Come on over guys, we miss you and this is a very nice campsite. The swimming pool surrounded by flowers is very nice, there’s even flowers and music in the bathrooms. The only disappointment of the day was when Rodney went over to the bar to watch the soccer, the TV is apparently ‘broken’, so we’ll watch a DVD this evening instead. At the end of the day, we both thought we fancied another day of not moving anywhere, so we might just do that tomorrow.
Monday was thankfully another dry day, so we stayed on at Cudillero and walked one kilometre down to Playa de Aguilar. Actually no, we didn’t walk; Rodney decided to take an overgrown track through the bush. And yes, I will call it bush, because we were picking our way through ferns and brambles all under the canopy of tall blue gums; the smell of the eucalyptus oil had us thinking we were hiking in Australia! When we reached the beach, it was yet another beautiful one; smooth, spotless sand dotted with big and small rocks. We sat at a café for a while and we also sat on the edge of the beach leaning on the warm wall and reading our books. Then, despite it being a very steep winding road back to the campsite, the uphill stroll was much quicker than the downhill bush scramble. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll head further east and inland to the mountains.
And as a postscript, they’re in need of a good interpreter at this campsite and yet strangely you still know what they’re trying to say……
