San Martino de Xuvia

Camino Ingles, Day 1: Ferrol to Pontedeumo


After a comfy night at the Parador we decided to head straight to the Port to the start of the Camino and take breakfast there. Unfortunately the baker clearly hadn’t delivered yet and we had to make do with a slice of white toast instead of the much-anticipated tostadas con tomate, not an auspicious start. Still we set off out of town, following the coast round along alternating stretches of seafront promenade and patches of dockside industry. Early on we were disrobing outside a little church as it opened and the attendant, who presumably thought we’d been waiting devoutly for him to unlock rather than just packing our hoodies away, invited us in for a look round and a stamp on our pilgrim passports. This was more like the Camino experience we expected though it turned out, somewhat ironically, that most of the churches we passed along the way were closed for business. Eventually we turned inland somewhat, stopping at a Lidl for supplies, until we reached the church pictured, where we ate our empanadas and then headed down to cross the river via the railway embankment, the track running slightly precipitously alongside the rails and the great roadbridge crossing towering beside everything, quite spectacular and not a little scary. We made our way up the long slow hill out of the valley, walking for a time with a fellow pilgrim called Gabriela, from Switzerland, who was some weeks into a significantly longer Camino than us, and then stopped to reward ourselves with coffee at Fene. The last part of the day’s walk saw us trudging slightly up some more hills and over and alongside some busier roads but whether it was harder going or we were just more tired would be a matter of debate. Suffice to say, we were glad to come at last to the old bridge at Pontedeume. That said, we’d booked a hotel on the other side of town – and further up the very steep route we’d need to take in the morning – which meant we were technically further along overall but we still had to go back down to find something to eat! It being Monday, much of Pontedeumo was closed but we eventually found a old-school backstreet tapas place called the Taberna Zas that took care of our requirements with polpo a la planche, boquerones and padrone peppers.