We have a few days of R & R in Santiago and since we have until the 10th of September before meeting up with our Mercy Ship friends in Porto, we carry on with more walking, now heading south down the coast.
We decide to walk the Camino Espirituel in reverse. Its a short walk starting in Pontecesures to Pontevedra and although only 3 days, the history behind this route is significant.
When the Apostle St James was martyred, his disciples squirrelled his body (and decapitated head) away from Jerusalem and he was brought up the coast of Spain and then by boat to Santiago via the river to the Arousa estuary. This camino route is considered by some to be the original Camino way.
The mysticism around this story is that the Apostle’s remains travelled in a stone boat without paddles or rudder, guided only by the stars and protected by angels where his remains eventually arrived and were buried at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Remember, we are walking this route in reverse so our first day of the route is by boat, leaving Pontecesures to Villanova de Arousa, and passing through some beautiful natural scenery. We also see the only Stations of the Cross (Via Cruzis) on a river. All crosses show St James below Jesus. The most popular one is known as the Calvary (calvario) and it’s composed of 3 crosses, honoring the Apostle and his disciples.
We are also thankful to meet Romina and Denis from Italy who take the boat trip with us and with whom we end up spending quite a few days on the Camino together.
As we approach Vilanova de Arousa, we are struck by the amount of mussel and clam farms. The area has been supported by this shellfish farming for decades.
From Vilanova we head inland and start the 25 km walk to the Albergue of Armenteira where we will spend the night. It’s a lovely walk, with the Armenteira river on one side and vineyards on the other. On the last section called the Ruta da Pedra e da Agua (the Stone and Water route), we walk past dozens of old water mills and millstones all attesting to the importance of the milling industry at the time.
Just before the climb toward the Armenteira albergue, we come across ‘Aldea labrega’, a meadow covered with native trees in which stone statues have been placed representing Galician life.
That evening we visit the Armenteira monastery and take part in the evening pilgrims mass complete with the nuns singing and blessing the pilgrims in 5 different languages.
On our third day, we wake to rain. So we geared up and headed out for the 20 km walk to Pontevedra. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and ended up way off track somewhere in the mountains. Fortunately Mrs Google put us right and we managed to find our way down to our destination.
Despite the rain on the last day, we can cerainly recommend walking this camino ‘variant’. We end up at Pontevedra, happy to have somewhere to dry off and have a hot shower.
Tomorrow is another day and another adventure. Stay tuned!
Looks awesome. Why not come & spend a week with us in the UK? We would live to see you & we have 2 empty guest rooms.