Camino Ingles - Day 1: Ferrol to Pontedeume, Monday 10th April

Today was a late start as we set off a bit after 8 cutting across the town to get to the Camino just as me and Dad had 18 months ago when we had walked the Camino Ingles (see http://footprintsonthecamino.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=camino+ingles) indeed we would follow not only the same route as then but largely stay in the same places as there is very little choice of accommodation on the Ingles.

The first part of the walk sees you go past a Naval Base (it is from Ferrol that the Spanish Armada met before setting off and the town has maintained a strong link to the Navy) and from there takes you along the sea front - you pass a small beach on the way and here we saw that whereas 18 months ago there were tractors raking the sand the beach now was littered with stones and other debris.

When we arrived in the town of Fene we went into a supermarket and bought bread and cheese and ham as a snack and then went into a bar for breakfast - Becky had toast with tomato and I had toast with honey, a rich amber coloured variety with a richness of taste. Dad shared this with us. After a quick visit to the Town Hall for another sello we were off again.

As with all but one day of this Camino the day was warm(most days it rose to the 30 degree Celsius level by the time we had stopped walking) but there is a fair amount of shade on this route and a lot of it is spent walking through Eucalyptus forests.

There was one section with a small detour before which there was a house with a beautiful black and white cat who saw it as her responsibility to see that we went the right way, bounding along with us and looking worried when we stopped, even going up yo Becky and meowing at her and then patting her when she stopped for a minute.

By the time we reached Cabanas we were ready for a break and so sat at one of the picnic tables by the beach to eat the sandwiches we had bought at the airport the day before. Cabanas is evidently a resort town judging by the number of bars by the beach and the hotels we saw but the season had not started yet - despite the heat we could not find anywhere to buy an ice cream!

The walk from Cabanas into Pontedeume was longer than I remembered and this section, short though it was relatively, had no shade but in the time we had eaten it had become noticeably hotter so it was more difficult going. At least as we walked over the bridge into town we could distract ourselves from the heat by looking down into the water and seeing hundreds of fish swimming around.



We arrived at the albergue to find ourseves getting the last three beds (although we found out later that there was actually one more bed - someone had arrived at the albergue and spread the contents of their bag over two beds and then gone out not returning for 2-3 hours by which time several single people had come and gone again believing that there was no where to stay here). There are a few hotels in the town for people to stay in and these were being well used - the people in Pilgrims' House in Santiago said that the Ingles was only so busy because it was Easter week but me and Dad found similar conditions when we walked in September.

Settled in the albergue we went out and found the ice cream that we had been wanting for a while and sat in a café eating it before buying some food for the next day's walk.

There had been no Hospitalero at the albergue when we had arrived and no sign saying when they might arrive but he turned up at 6 so we paid our 5 euros, got our sello and went back to the café we had had our ice cream at for tea  having burger, chips and a drink for 6 euros.

After eating we went for a quick walk to check where the Camino went the next day and then went back to bed only to be disturbed at 11 when a large group of Spanish people came back nosily into the albergue talking and laughing loudly for over an hour.