Into Galicia

At 6.30am was back at the station to take the train to A Gudina and pick up the path.  This train ride is probably pretty spectacular, so it’s a pity I’ve only been able t do it both ways in the pitch dark.  Left A Gudina (having been the only person on the train until then) and decided to take the southern route to Ourense, via Verin, with the moon to my right and a rosy-fingered sunrise to my left.

If I had thought it would be gently downhill from here all to way to Santiago, I was soon put right by three fairly strenuous mountain passes, the first two over 3000’, and the final, Alto de Fumaces, around 2900’.  It then was downhill all the way to Verin (at about 1200’).  The views had been amazing – back to the snow around Padornelo, and southwards into the hills of northern Portugal.  There was heather in flower on the outskirts of Verin, not something you expect to see in late November, and a few yellow gorse flowers.

Verin is a farily non-descript place with the huge border fortress of Monterrei on the hill above it.