Oddities of the Camino

 Hiking Day 32    May11

O Cadavo to Lugo

Miles  19.6

Total miles  454.3

Ascent  1387’

Descent  2255”

Following a sparse  breakfast with zero proteins, we are on the road by 7:45 am, starting with a long and steep climb of over 500 feet. The beginning is very chilly and soon we opt for the lesser traveled alternative route for a few miles. It is a good choice, both shady and on a gentle path.

The day is enjoyable but without any coffee stops during the long 20 miles, just a snack break and a sack lunch break. We average 3.2 miles per hour moving speed and finish our walk in about 7 hours, avoiding the worst heat of the day.

We arrive in the city of Lugo, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants with a very extensive history, which I will touch on tomorrow.

To add some levity, I would like to post some of the oddities we have seen on this Camino trip. I will let you experience them via a few photos:

“Pot-Trisha”- we saw numerous of these in various styles, sizes, and colors, all made of clay flower pots and used to decorate outside of homes. This one is about 3 feet tall.

                                The Human Tyranny Tree—the explanation plaque is in the photo below. Still a             mystery to me…

We have seen only 3 pigs the entire trip yet we walk through farms daily, all loaded with every other farm animal imaginable. And pork is on the menu all the time. Where do they raise the pigs??

This one is an oddity from today. It is an oddity because tonight is the first night in 6 weeks that we have had hair conditioner available in any of the places we have stayed. My hair has BODY tonight!!

Of the thousands of sheep we have seen, these that we saw just today are the only shorn sheep we have seen. It seems the sheep here are not normally shorn.

I know that just about everyone has hiked a Camino at some point in their life, but really? ET really hiked a Camino during his brief stay on earth?

This fence is constructed of very thin slabs of rock that are placed vertically. The final fence is about three feet tall.

This grape wine begins of the far side of the house, wraps around the corner, and has grown about 50 feet along the front of the house. The wine is supported by special metal brackets set in the stone house wall.

These are bundles of Eucalyptus brush that result from the trees after cutting. A special machine picks up the brush, cuts it to a specific length, then compresses and wraps it in twine. Then the bundles are stacked along the roads. We just cannot figure out what the bundles are used for. Perhaps a wood pulp of some sort??

Today we passed an unused and neglected rest area along the trail. It had over a dozen of these rock slab picnic tables., Each slab is about 4-5 inches thick. No one is going to walk off with one of these heavy beasts!

This final one is a complete mystery and we would like input of possible purposes, especially since we are not animals farmers. We have seen just a few of these. All near barns or in barnyards. This one was the fanciest of all. On the left is a wooden yoke like apparatus.The sides have restraints. It’s appears that some type of animal is placed here for some type of procedure. We have a couple of guesses.

I know that the comments section of this blog does not seem to work, so just email me with your ideas.

Gonegpn@comcast.net