The longest day
Once again, at 9 in the morning on the dot, I leave Fonsagrada. And it’s hard to get going. I’ve had a very good night in a great hostel, and the morning is cold and damp. We’re at almost 1,000 m and the thick fog means that just moving about gets you wet. But today’s stage will be a long one: I want to cover plenty of ground to get as close to Santiago as possible. Tomorrow I want to reach Santiago, the sooner the better, so the closer I am, the less time it’ll take me.
So I set off in the morning without delay, trying to clock up kilometres. I start with an up-and-down stretch of road, avoiding the paths. The first path I tried was very muddy; if I carry on that way I’ll be very slow. I think the best thing is to stay on the road until I lose some height, and then take firmer paths.
Eventually I lose height and the paths are much easier going. I enter an area of stone paths with a very good surface, very, very pretty, which are easy to ride, and I enjoy myself like a kid. It’s turning out to be one of the most fun parts of the Camino to ride with panniers.
These paths bring me to Lugo, a city I really like and have been wanting to visit again. What’s more, in the city centre there’s a specialist cheese shop, Queixería Praza do Campo, where I mean to stop and do some shopping. Once I find it, I do my shopping and grab a bite to eat while I’m at it.
It’s a cold day and the stop gets to me: the cold gets into my bones and, on top of the hard slog, it leaves me a bit worse for wear. It must show on my face, because at the place where I stop for a pincho they literally stuff me, giving me several of those pinchos that come free with your drink. I thank them over and over and quickly set off towards Melide: there are a lot of kilometres left and few hours of daylight, so I can’t stop for long. But we all know that haste makes waste.
For anyone who doesn’t know Lugo, I’ll tell you it sits on top of a hill. In my rush, I go down the hill… the wrong way, towards Fonsagrada. Fuming, I climb back up the hill to take the right direction, and push hard to try to warm up.
And I do warm up, at least as much as the heavy damp of the day allows. I focus on pedalling: if I want to arrive in daylight I can’t get distracted, so I don’t stop to take photos and I eat on the go. What looked like an easy route on the map turns into a rather tortuous up and down, though a pretty one, with a climb near the end to a wind farm. From there I can make out Melide in the distance, so all that’s left is to ride down a lovely track. At 6 in the evening I reach a comfortable hostel where I can finally take off my damp clothes and have a shower.
After going out to eat and buy a few things, I go back to the hostel, where two walkers, a Korean and a Swiss, invite me to dinner. The Korean has made seafood pasta his own way (hot as hell) and I take the chance to bring out the cheeses I bought in Lugo to return the favour. An unexpected dinner on a magnificent day.
