No need of an alarm clock this morning! One of my roomies was kind enough to hit the snooze button 3x on her phone so I was well and truly awake at 6:15am again. No matter, had a great, uninterrupted sleep so was happy to start getting ready and out the door at my usual 7am.

It was a brisk and clear morning as I exited Pontevedra. Plenty of arrows pointing the way and it was just as unscenic leaving as it was entering. Finally after 2kms we were in the country.

I had lots of company on the way out, about 100% more than I prefer walking with so I’m glad to be turning off the main road soon. There’s a big fork in the road at 3 kms, those wishing to walk directly to Santiago go Right, and those wanting to do the Espiritual Variente go Left. The latter is a 3 day route, with the penultimate day a 25 kilometer boat ride back to the Central camino route, which is what I’ve chosen to do.

The start of the Variente is extremely pleasant, or maybe its average and it’s the weather and light that’s so amazing. I feel happier and slightly adventurous taking an offshoot way. After a bit I recognize that I’m heading eastward when the next town should be to the west. I’m faithfully following the arrows and worry for a bit that somehow this mistakenly reconnects with the main route. After pulling myself up a steep trail I pass an old church and the penny drops, a Camino is purportedly for religious purposes, the route is going to swing past as many of these old places as it can. And at 9 kms comes the humongous monastery at Poio

I found my first cafe just near the monastery. Today’s surprise was that my coffee came not only with cake (a reasonable amount) but with a little shot of fresh o.j. too. It’s always only men in these little local bars, do the women not drink coffee? Or maybe they shuffle their men off to the bars so they can have some peace and quiet at home.

I passed Kelly at about this point. She only decided yesterday to go this way. She had walked the Central Portugese route last November so instead of retracing old ground she thought she’d give this way a try. It adds one more day to one’s camino versus going straight on but she has time….

I followed the main road a bit then the Camino took me up a lane so tiny one could touch the homes on either side, through a eucalyptus forest, then down a scruffy path behind a school and popped me out at the ocean! It’s a beautiful sight in the soft glow of the mid-morning light.

Combarro is the name of the unbelievably quaint fishing village pictured. The Camino only skirts the town so I went off-piste to explore. There’s so much character on every corner of the charming harbor street. It’s narrow and full of colonnaded homes all attached to each other. In olden times the ground floor was used to store fishing gear and farming equipment, while the people lived on the second storey. And having a stone balcony showed you were doing really well in the world! The minuscule harbor is now full of tiny shops and restaurants that were just opening up, getting ready for the tourist trade of a gorgeous Saturday.

Returning to the Camino meant climbing. Steep, not so steep, paved, dirt, gravel, it was everything, and all relentlessly up, up, up for 8 kms(?). My gps watch tracked 2416’ up and 1499’ down. Luckily I knew in advance the terrain but because my pack was heavier today than usual (an extra water bottle and as there’s no bag transfer service here I’m carrying my toiletries and a change of clothes too) I took my own sweet time; stopping frequently for photos or a proper rest.

I started on hard pavement, transversing through residential neighborhoods, old stone small bungalows before reaching modern homes with gardens and eventually farms and vineyards. Then the road reached an eucalyptus forest which offered some welcome patches of shade from the ever increasingly warm sun and the occasional gusts of cool breeze helped too. Nothing like the smell of eucalyptus to take one’s mind away from the slog.

A viewpoint at 16 kms of picturesque Combarro far below was a convenient reason for a nice shoes-off rest for 10 blissful minutes or so. Then I turned a final corner and finally was off the hard surface and onto a nice, wide dirt road lined with pretty yellow broom.

This was a false sense of summiting, as there was still plenty more elevation to climb. I hope my room tonight has a bathtub, my muscles could use a long hot soak! More miles through the forest, which has evidence of recent logging, the occasional glimpses of the sea far below, and continually up.

Finally at 20 kms the route crested and it’s all downhill from here!!! There was a tricky final descent alongside a babbling brook before we were disgorged in front of a hopping bar! Tons of day-trippers soaking up the sun after their walk, it was a bit too much civilization for me so I continued on to my hotel.

Since I’m traveling as light as I can I won’t have a towel or sleeping bag these last few days so I booked into the Pousada Armenteira tonight. Very retro, modern, James Bondish to me. I think I had the whole place to myself for the first few hours which was a bit creepy but I know there’ll be more guests later as I just sent up a couple of German guys who arrived as I was having my lunch/supper back down at the now quiet bar.