Day 11

Shorter day. Shorter walk. Shorter blog today! Praise the Lord! And everyone said- Amen!

Starting from Baiona, walking the coastal route feels like walking through coastal communities that roll into each other, joined by sandy bays, headlands, and lovely beaches. No particular towns… just beach suburbs. 

We follow the arrows, although they were very few today…

… across the river Miñor on the Ponte Románica da Ramallosa… and it’s a very easy flat walk. The medieval bridge, built in the 13th century, is believed to have replaced an older Roman one. Its ten arches connect Nigrán to Baiona… and I love old bridges.

And the Ramallosa natural area wetlands… known for its confluence of ecosystems where a river meets the sea, were lovely and a little different to the environments we had been passing through. 

As we left Ramallosa, and walked along a path that headed over a headland. This was not the official route but because we had such a short walking day today we thought it might be nice. And it absolutely was… between beautiful old homes, that while perhaps not ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’ were definitely owned by wealthy Spaniards…

… with amazing views and lots of security. The water was clear and blue and we could see across the bay to Baiona and its castle and harbour where we stayed last night. 

After dropping down from the headland  we arrived at a lovely long white sandy beach- Playa América, nearly two kilometres of soft white sand and calm waters and one of the most popular beaches in the area… and there are many. It is a beautiful day and there are many people enjoying the sunshine. 

We decide for now to not stay but head to our accomodation as we have an early check in for the first time. It is a fair way from the beach, which is disappointing (who chose this place? 😂) but we figure we can shower and change and come back down. However, for the first time, our luggage does not arrive before us… in fact we are waiting for hours… which of course means we cannot shower and change. So we go down to the restaurant attached to the hotel and eat more bread, cheese and wine while we wait for our luggage. 

We have booked a luggage service which transfers our main packs from accomodation to accomodation each day, allowing us to walk without carrying our luggage. This makes for an easier and more enjoyable experience, as we only have to carry a day pack. It’s been an amazing and reliable service and our bags have always been waiting when we arrived… but this was our shortest walking day and it didn’t quite work out the way we thought. 

So, way later than we originally planned we head down to the beach for a lovely walk in the sand along the waters edge- my first earthing in ages. I love the feel of my bare feet in the sand and even the icy water of the Atlantic… much colder than the Pacific. 

And then we go in search of a little restaurant I had noticed earlier as we first arrived here. An amazing meal and wine later and we start our walk back home. The beach is beautiful and the sun is starting to set and I would love to stay and watch it but it won’t be until 10.15 and that is just too late for these old Camino grannies. 

Today there has been little indication that we are even on the Camino… there are few way markers, few pilgrims, few churches or shrines and today really just felt kind of like our regular walks at home… or maybe on holidays. Hopefully tomorrow will have more of that Camino feeling that is so hard to describe. 

 

Steps today- 24,782

Kilometres today-16.8

Flights climbed- 3

Temperature- 21°