Dec
24
The final 100km of the camino between Ourense and Santiago is far from a flat picnic, although the real highlands are now behind you. The first stop is Cea. This is a village where they take their bread very seriously. The sign on the outskirts of the village tells you that you are entering a place
Sculpture to the unknown bread-maker in Cea, Galicia
– “where the bread is art”. They have been making their special bread – which has its own geographic denomination – since probably at least the 13th century.
The Pico Sacro near where the wolf queen lived
The village’s 18 bakeries now produce over a third of a million kilos of it – something of a combination of ciabatta and sourdough – per year, some of which is sent straight to Madrid. Bread is so important to the village that they have a special annual exaltation celebration of bread, and there’s even a bronze statue to the unknown panaderia, or breadmaker, in the centre of the town.
Taboarda’s 914AD bridge over the Deza
Between Cea and Lalin, one of the “altos” went over 2600′ above sea level, and for much of the time you’re still well over 1500′ up. Less than a day before Santiago you suddenly come upon the distinctive Pico Sacro, or sacred peak, rising nearly 1800′ up. This is where St James’ disciples asked the Reina Lupa – the queen of the wolves – for advice on where to bury him. Being a wicked queen, she sent them past a dragon’s lair and into the field of stars – the Compostela – which at the time was over-run with savage man-killing cattle. Santiago’s disciples easily killed the dragon and the beasts were tamed by the saint’s presence and became tame moo cows providing milk for evermore. The wicked queen was so impressed she became Spain‘s first recorded Christian convert.
Unlike the tidal wave of people moving from the Pyrenees to Santiago along the Camino Frances, pilgrims on the Via de la Plata, especially at this time of year, are a relatively rare sight – in some albergues I was the first person in over a week to stay the night. It means that you are more of an object of curiousity, and you become your own conversation piece. It’s rare to go into a bar – or even through a village – without somebody asking where you set out from, where you come from, or at least give you a friendly “buen camino” greeting. A couple of days short of Santiago, when I told an amiable local that I’d just walked from Seville, I was flattered by his response of ¡ay caramba! – something I thought they only said in films or cartoons.
More windfarms than solar panels in Galicia
The other pilgrim greeting is ultreya, which is usually translated as “forwards”, but is really a much more emphatic exhortation – something between Longfellow’s “Excelsior” and Buzz Lightyear’s “to infinity – and beyond!” One of the camino’s seldom advertised bi-products is the fact that it is an extremely effective diet: which other regime lets you eat and drink as much as you like for a month and, as long as you walk your 15-25 miles each day, you will still lose half a stone in the run-up to Christmas?
Arriving at your destination, the astonishingly beautiful Praza do Obradoiro in front of Santiago’s cathedral towers, is a slightly bitter-sweet moment. It means you have achieved the goal you set out for many weeks earlier, but it also means that your adventure is over – and it has been quite an adventure.
Alan Sykes, the Guardian Northerner’s arts expert and much else besides, has marched 1000km (621 miles) in the last month to Santiago de Compostela to expiate unknown sins. He’s faithfully reported on his progress and you can read his earlier reports from the camino here. He took all the photographs. As he nurses his feet, why not send him a Christmas Tweet: @geltsdale?
Here is a map of his route – the Via de la Plata from Seville – courtesy of www.santiago-compostela.net, an excellent website which has lots of information on all the pilgrim routes. Feliz Natividad!
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