Camino de Invierno – San Pedro de Líncora: Guillermo, 87 years old.

Church of San Pedro, Líncora

Pure joy

On a wet day after a very long walk with a descent of 400m and an immediate ascent of 300m,  I might not have expected to be as light-hearted as I was as I climbed up the vineyard-draped, seemingly vertical, banks of the Rio Minho. This was my sixth day on the challenging Camino de Invierno.  In fact, I felt spritely because half-way up the hill I had stopped for a real meal, in a family-run Mesón which had a welcoming fire burning in an old cast-iron stove.  I had been fed with pulpo and cocido followed by a solid nut tart, all home-made.  Others were drinking the wine produced in the cellar bellow the restaurant from the grapes which surrounded it and some regular visitors had travelled far to be there.

Mesón o Adega de Viega, Belesar

That was joy, but the pure joy was awaiting me further up the hill, nearer to the town of Chantada to which I was headed for the night.  As I reached the plain, some 150 m up from the mesón, I saw a man with an umbrella hooked on to the back of his jersey, dragging the neckline half-way down his back,  As I neared him, he greeted me with an almost toothless smile and with eyes which embraced me warmly.  We stood chatting about the Camino, his life as a farmer, his cows – he was on his way to bring them home – his travels and his childhood and I was enchanted.  Then, as if to make complete the spell of pure joy, he sang me a song about the Camino to Santiago.

After that he insisted I go and visit the Scotsman who lived opposite the Church of San Pedro.  It was, in fact, a Dutchman, André who is renovating his house and planning a refugio.

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