Day 41: Xunqueira de Ambía to Ourense

It is always tempting to think of the last day as something other than a full day of the Camino. Possibly it is because the main Camino website gives it only a one star for difficulty (compared to four for some of the other stages this week), or because it is mostly downhill, or because the last part is through the rather prosaic outskirts and suburbs of a modern provincial city, that the stage can be played down in one's mind. But it has been a day of 22km walking, and has passed through a large number of villages, with a few good views over the valley in which the city is situated. 

We started out early from Xunqueira - well earlier than usual - and decided to postpone breakfast until the first village out of Xunqueira. It was a good move. The first three kilometres included a drop down into the river valley and then a bit of a climb up to the village of O Pousa, where we were greeted in the Bar O Torre by a lovely lady with a hugely welcoming smile. The view over the countryside and back towards the mountains made this a beautiful place to stop and just take it all in, over a coffee. Today's stage is punctuated by villages and bars throughout. So after a further five kilometres we took another break for a drink at a roadside bar. Although cloudier today it was still hot, with a maximum of 30 degrees, so it was still necessary to keep up the liquid intake. Realising we were a third of the way along we decided to make a good effort to do the next third before stopping for lunch. 

Most of today's route was roadside walking with a bit of parallel green lane. This is always less interesting and harder on the feet. The villages in Galicia are much closer together than in Castile, more like in England, so lots of today's walk was through places where people live. As we got to our designated lunch stop, Reboledo, we passed through a particularly ugly industrial estate. In the town, though, we found a bar which did enormous bacon and cheese bocadillos. Great Camino food!

The last seven kilometres seemed to drag. The only place of interest was Seixalbo, which has a quaint medieval centre, but not much evident life. Descending into the city - having started today at 500 metres and the city being at 100 metres - we passed through seemingly unending blocks of flats before getting to the street near the old town, where we have a flat to stay in overnight. 

So it is great to have finished this section and to have only about 110km to go to get to Santiago finally, once I return, Deo Volente, in October. This has been the most challenging of the sections of the Camino, but a great thing to be able to do, to conquer the challenges. And so tonight there will be a nice dinner in Ourense and tomorrow see a little of the city before heading back to Madrid airport by high speed train, passing the places we have walked and going through tunnels in mountains that we have climbed. 

To be continued...