Day 3 A Picota to Cee…a walk through a thin place in the world?

Well the weather hasn’t improved but sometimes one just has to embrace the suck lol.

Though rainy and foggy the first little town we arrived at, Oliveroa, was very pretty and full of Horreos with a very unique design.

This the first time I’ve noticed the unique stone pads under the structure. My guess is that the stone pads allow for a better distribution of the weight of the structure. Anyway, who knew I would start to be conversant on Hórreos construction. Hell, two years ago I didn’t even know what a Hórreo was. Moving on, we left town and shortly came upon a very pretty river crossing.

We then moved into some amazing fog

As we moved up into the Spanish mores it started raining harder and getting foggier. There was a reservoir below us that we could barely see.

As we moved higher we could hear but barely see a river gorge below.

Moving on we reached a small cafe and had a coffee and Advil. My heel has gotten much better. Knee, not so much, particularly downhill 😑. After a little rest we pushed on to the great divide.

At this point one can either take the path to the right and hike to Muxía ( pronounced Moo she a) or go to the left to Finisterre (pronounced either Fin es tear (tear like paper) or Fin es tear a (short a)). We moved to the left.

There is supposedly a large carbide plant next to the path at the great divide. We could hear it but saw nothing.

As we moved on the fog continued to thicken. We came upon a crucero where one is supposed to get a first glimpse of the sea. This day nada.

The fog got so thick that every once in a while Mike would get far enough ahead of us that he would start to fade into the mist “Field of dreams” style and we would call for him to stop. If one had to take a nature break the others would move a discrete distance away but not so far to allow the fog to completely envelop because you could have easily gotten turned around in the heavy mist.

At one point Mel joked “My God it feels like we’ve passed on and we’re in Limbo while they decide whether we get to return or not “ I couldn’t disagree no sound other than our own boots crunching on the ground no sites other than the three of us on the path. 😳

After a bit a Chinese woman came up on us from behind and exclaimed “My God I am so glad to see people! I have been walking for hours and seen no one. I was afraid I was lost. “ It was that bad.

As the Chinese lady walked away I guess the divine powers decided it was not our time as elevation began to drop, my knee began to hurt and the fog began to thin and we got our first glimpse of the ocean.

To me, the far horizon of the ocean looked like it was slightly over my head. I have learned since that, of course, it is an optical illusion.

Out of the clouds, we started down the hill, my knee telling me so every step.

Part way down the hill I left a small stone on a wall overlooking the sea at a location where it is unlikely to be disturbed.

Continuing down the hill we found this homemade international mile marker

The steeper the hill the slower I have to go to keep the knee from blowing out.

At the bottom of the hill the hike, and my knee, were done for the day with the next day being a rest day which I definitely needed.

That evening, Mike and I were going over his guidebook the following comment was included from an ancient guide:

“When you are traveling at night in Galicia, flickering lights maybe seen in which dart back and forth of the mournful landscape in certain marshy areas. You must be very careful. It may be that you will find an invisible presence trying to place a lighted candle in your hand and should you accept you are lost…..So it can happen that you disappear from life and spend an eternity trying to get rid of that candle, haunting the moorlands and waste places where ghostly lights flicker until at last you can lure some human being into the Holy Company of Souls and escape yourself “ 😳😳😳😂😂😂

Rest day tomorrow. Notes from Cee