We loved Portomarin and it is one of those places we would recommend and go back to.  We left it in thick fog and set off for our longest walk since we started.  I had been dreading today’s walk and over the past 10 days had seriously considered having my bag transferred just this once as it is further than I had ever planned on walking with a back pack.  We had walked over 15 miles the two previous days without too much trouble and Laurence persuaded me that the extra couple of miles wouldn’t make that much difference.  He was right, we walked about 17 miles without being any more tired at the end.  At least now I can say that I carried my pack all the way – assuming that is, the next three days goes well.

The scenery is still quite beautiful but far less dramatic and we have become quite blasé about it, even slightly bored.  Today we have walked most of the way in sight or earshot of the main road and a line of pilgrims, occasionally passing through small (still smelly) hamlets I now know are called Brea’s.  We had noticed over the last couple of days these strange long thin buildings on stilts, but couldn’t work out what they were.  Today we found out that they are called Horreos in Spain or Corn Cribs, for drying out corn on the cob, mainly for animal feed.  We also passed one house where the owner fancies himself as a wood carver!  Not quite sure what the animals were supposed to be, but they looked like a crazy dog and a koala bear although Laurence is sure it is an elephant.  I marked them 5 out of 10 with a mental note, “try harder”.  Further on still we saw in someone’s garden another pixie house, or perhaps it is a chicken coup?  We still don’t know.

We made sure we had regular breaks because of the long day.  We walked from 7:45 am until just before ten o’clock when we stopped for coffee.  It was still really foggy when we went inside but when we left at 10:30 am the fog had lifted and the sun was shining.  After a further two hours we had a lunch break then after another hour we stopped for a ten minute break. Before finally making it to Palas de Rei an hour later, we saw an arrow in the road pointing the way.  When we got close we couldn’t believe it was made out of horse manure!  Ugh, someone had to have handled it to make the arrow!  Who would want to do that?

It was 3:30 pm when we arrived in one piece feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.  On the way in we walked past the church and saw a notice saying there would be a pilgrims mass at 7 o’clock.  We decided to go even though we are not catholic  We felt that because we had come so far we should at least go to a pilgrims mass at least once.  It was an experience even though we didn’t understand much as it was in Spanish.  Occasionally the priest also spoke in English and French and spoke about the camino and wished us all a safe journey and buen camino!