Day 17 Arzúa to Pedrouzo (19.8km over 8 hours)
Today was our longest day yet but we felt pretty good! We started at 8am and reached our destination, Pedrouzo, at 4:30pm, covering 19.8km. The forecast called for rain all day but we were grateful to finish our Camino walk about 30 minutes before the rain came. We had cool temperatures today which we were grateful for as today was our longest walk.
Today we had wonderful rolling hills again but we felt stronger walking them. We came across some interesting sites on our walk today. The first one was near Taberna Velha at the Wall of Wisdom that has been "modernized" (i.e. laminated) to survive the elements of the Camino. It has inspirational quotes to motivate tired and worn peregrinos as they finish their final kilometers to Santiago de Compostela.
Another interesting site was an albergue and bar just past the Wall of Wisdom and involved...beer bottles. Sculptures had been formed with recycled beer bottles of various shapes and sizes. Each bottle has been signed and dated by a pilgrim and then nailed in place. A lot of work had been put into this communal work of art!
All along the Camino are impromptu shrines where pilgrims leave messages, prayer cards, sayings, rocks, photos in rock formations that are protected from the elements. We usually pause and read a few of the messages. At the end of the day we came across a gentleman who had written a book about the Camino and also had put up some posters on the road towards the end of our stage.
Feels like today we were reminded of all the reasons we chose to and continue to walk our Camino. As it starts to wrap up, we grow more grateful that we’ve had this opportunity. Tomorrow we head to Santiago de Compostela. It will be our longest walk thus far.
Comments