Past Verin

At dawn there was a quite thick mist down in the valley below Monterrei, although it was bright sunshine above.  Had to go down into the chilly mist but it had mostly been burned off by 10am-ish.  At Enfesta I was accosted by a chatty old gadgie pruning his vines.  He was hoping to practice his rusty German on me, as he’d spent three years there as a gastarbeiter working on construction sites in the 70s, and was disappointed that I could only answer in O-level standard.  He advised me to go back onto the N525 rather than carry on on the official camino.  I took his advice, but slightly regretted it as it meant just following the road all the way up to the alto das Estibadas at 2800’, which I hope will be my final high point on the journey.  But it wasn’t that bad as the road was quiet and the views at the top fantastic.

As I couldn’t work out the buses, got a taxi back to Verin (at €1 per km, which was much less than I’d feared).  The driver was chatty, if slightly depressed by the news from the rescate of Ireland and the general strike in Portugal.  He said Galicia and Extremadura were the worst regions of Spain for unemployment and the recession, which slightly surprised me as both seemed quite busy and prosperous from what I’d seen: but presumably you can’t judge a place just by walking through it – and I’ve worked in both Sunderland and Middlesbrough.