Camino Frances: Portomarin to Ligonde

Today was the longest walk of our Camino - 18,66km to be precise (the guidebook told us it would be 16km… it lied!). It was a very hilly day too, so quite a challenge. We had some beautiful views today - undulating hills with lots of trees.

Our morning started with lovely views of the river.  

We had the option of two routes shortly after leaving Portomarin and we opted for the more scenic, woodland route.  (I think this, combined with the detour at Castromaior, may be what added the 2km to our distance.)  It was pretty much uphill after uphill from the time we crossed the river. Once we’d left the woods we had the odd stretch on paths alongside the road and then other, much nicer, stretches through the countryside.

We took a short detour to see the Castro of Castromaior - an ancient hill fort that dates back to the 4th century BC! Mind-blowing! 

Then it was more uphills and downhills and just when I was feeling hot and bothered and about to lose my sense of humour, we happened upon a bar and I found myself sitting with a beer shandy in my hand and my good mood was miraculously restored!

After that it was a relatively smooth 5km with some downhills.  We passed through Ventas de Naron, where we stopped at the little chapel (built in the 1800s from stone that came from a 13th century templar hospital that was located nearby) that is cared for by a blind man who gives you little holy cards and a sello.  

On through Ligonde (desperately searching for somewhere to eat and being offered a hug by a random lady) and a short while later we were happily chomping on Spanish tortillas and sipping yet another shandy under the shady trees of Casa Mariluz. 

All in all it was a good day, stretched us a bit and took us out of our comfort zones but that’s definitely not a bad thing!  

Our accommodation for tonight is at Hosteria Calixtino, this hostel is beyond Ligonde, but we had a taxi pick us up at Cafe Mariluz and take us to the hostel and he will pick us up at Hosteria Calixtino in the morning and drop us off at Cafe Mariluz to continue our walk.

Hosteria Calixtino is very nice.  It seems to be run single-handedly by a very sweet lady - she is receptionist, waitress, cook and everything else inbetween by the look of it - very hard-working!  We had a lovely meal, but found the drinks to be very expensive compared to other places we have stayed at.  Overall I would recommend staying here, but just be careful with the drinks!