We started the day at 7:15 when a taxi met us in Morgade and took us to Portomarín, some 6 miles away.
Portomarín is a major stop/starting point for pilgrims who only walk the last 100 km to earn a compostela by walking to Santiago. It can house large numbers of pilgrims. Tourist buses abound to bring pilgrims in or advance pilgrims along the next 100 km. In our experience, most of the pilgrims are high schoolers, traveling in large (20-50) groups with a few adult chaperones per group.
We stopped at a traditional bar for breakfast and greeted the owner who recognized us.
We had breakfast here, for our 7th visit!
Today’s walk was all about pilgrims, hoards of pilgrims!
Walking from Portomarin down to cross the bridge and join the Camino.The far bridge crosses the reservoir that covers old Portomarín and joins the uphill path of the Camino (the path runs behind the large white building and up into the forest).From the “Camino” bridge you can see the reservoir that covered Old Portomarín in the 1950’s when a dam was constructed downstream.Soon after beginning to climb the mountain going out of Portomarín a large wave of young pilgrims appeared behind us.As the wave engulfed us and then moved beyond us, these were the last in the group of 50 plus pilgrims.We got a breather as the first wave cleared the top of the mountain.Our breather continued as we walked past “Amy’s trees”. Jim’s daughter, Amy, painted this scene from a photo Jim took several Caminos ago.Shortly after, another group of pilgrims began passing us and when we looked behind us…… the rest of the group and perhaps others followed, as far back as we could see!After walking for nearly 2 hours from Portomarín the pilgrim traffic began to return to a “normal” level.We actually seemed to be clear of the several hundred, mostly high school aged pilgrims that had been overtaking and passing us since our start in Portomarín.We actually walked past one pilgrim as we approached Gonzar.
We knew that Hosteria de Gonzar was a popular rest stop after Portomarín and hoped that we had walked slow enough to allow the mass of pilgrims to stop and then move on by the time we arrived, as it is our destination for the day.
We were elated when we saw what we thought was the rear guard of the massive wave exiting the restaurant portion of the Hostel.But, many still remained outside and others filled long lines inside waiting to purchase food, get their credentials stamped or use the restrooms.
So, it was early, so we found a couple of chairs under a tree with a cool breeze in the back of the property overlooking the pool and chilled for the next half hour allowing the remnants of the wave to disappear back onto the Camino and let our Camino return to normal.
This is our 4th visit to this property. When the lines dwindled, Jim ordered drinks for us and was recognized by the owner. He said he would come get us as soon as our room was ready. A few minutes later we were in our room and getting into our routine and waiting for our transported packs to arrive.
Hosteria de Gonzar is a relatively new (5 years) albergue and we feel very comfortable here. Having food available most of the day and a complete array of services that meet our needs make for a relaxing, restful stay… so we settled in quickly.
Ensalada mixtas for both of us, chicken for Linda and tender beef steak for Jim with house wine (Mencía) and cheesecake for dessert.
We had our main meal at 1:00, completed our chores, made plans for tomorrow and returned for a light snack at 6:30 before calling it a day.
Our Padrón pepper snack. Non of these Padrons were hot. A chef in Rabanal told us the Padrón peppers in Spain were no longer hot (1 in 10 is normally hot). This was our first batch and he appears to be right, based on our sampling.
Jimandi 