Monday April 29, 2024, Caminha to Mougas
We walked down to the harbour at 8 am. It was only a 10-minute walk. We were instructed to buy our tickets in the bar. Tickets in hand we were led to a speedboat and ferried across to Spain. We greeted the first Spaniard we saw with "Bom Dia". "Buenos dias", he said.
We walked all morning with Sofia from Chicago but born in South Korea. Busy talking, we took a wrong turn and found ourselves walking parallel to the Camino but closer to the ocean. Coming across a picnic table at 11 am we stopped for early lunch. I was carrying a stove so I made coffees. Sofia said she married her way into the US (like me!). "What do you want to do now?", Ken asked her. "Get a divorce", she said. "My husband only wants to sit and watch television all the time".
Later, in the afternoon, we stopped at a cafe for "cafe con leche". No more pingado now that we're in Spain.
Reaching Mougas, I located the apartment I'd booked for the night. We were met by a woman who didn't speak any English. Patsy and I could half understand what she was saying but she used Google translate to make sure we understood. Our hosts had left for us fresh bread, beer, eggs (from their chickens), vegetables (from their garden), coffee. For only €54, it as eggsellent.
I poured myself a beer and almost fell while carrying the glass from the kitchen to the living room. Both floors have identical tile but there was a 6" drop that I didn't see when walking out of the kitchen. The surprise drop almost made me fall but I managed to recover my balance and only spilled half the glass of beer.
Mougas is a very small town. We went for dinner at the only nearby restaurant, Aguncheiro, where we ordered two salad mixtos (one for Patsy and the other for Ken and me to share), a Zorza for me, and a tortilla española for Ken.
The waitress warned us that this was too much food but we didn't believe her. We must have taken away a third of the meal in boxes.
16 miles (15 walking miles plus the ~1 mile boat crossing)
Tuesday, April 30, 2024, Mougas to Baiona
We woke up by our alarms at 7 am. We could all have slept longer. We were still so full from last night's dinner that I couldn’t countenance making omelettes for breakfast. I just had some muesli and toast with jam.
We'd planned to set off at 9.30 but the rain was particularly heavy. By 10:00 it had stopped so we bit the bullet and departed. A flood of water was pouring down the street but it never more than drizzled on us the whole rest of the day.
We walked part of the way with Rachel, a 27-year-old Canadian on a 6-month tour of South America and Europe. It's just amazing how adventurous some young people are.
We followed the path up and over a saddle before I read a message from last night's host advising us not to go this way but to follow the road instead. Following the easy, flat road isn't the path that "Over the Hills" would choose.
I coordinated with our hostess for this night that we'd meet her at 14:50. We scoped out a Carrefour supermarket, only a 3-minute walk from the apartment, while waiting. There was no duck or rabbit despite it being a French chain.
The apartment, at least, was fabulous, very modern and sparkling clean, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our hostess left us ground coffee for her Gaggia espresso machine and the kitchen was very well-stocked.
12.6 miles
27 июн 2024
