Tag: senderismo

Short Stops, Galicia (ES)

This was a very rainy winter day in Galicia. The wind was a bit crazy so we made a bunch of short stops without a lot of walking.

Fervenza da Noveria

Fervenza de A Noveira is in the Comarca do Xallas, Mazaricos. This is a very short walk to an incredible view of the falls.

Ezaro

Ezaro is a beautiful pueblo in Galicia. In summer it is home to a swimming competition at the end of summer. The swimmers start in the sea and swim to the pueblo near the waterfall. There was so much wind this day, we struggled to make the boardwalk for this photo. It felt like such an accomplishment that we took a cake and a coffee in a nearby cafe to celebrate.

Hidroelectrico de Rio Tambre

This path was more enclosed and the hills to either side blocked the wind so we took a little hike at this stop.

The Hidroelectrico de Rio Tambre was built by architect Antonio Palacios and finished in 1926. Outside there are sculptures and examples of the antique machinery that were once employed here.

There is a 7-8km hiking trail that runs along the river. The first half was a pretty easy trail, but we did not finish so I don’t know for the rest. Wikiloc has the route here marked as moderate.

Are any of these edible? If you know please comment below. I do not know much about mushrooms, but Galicia has a lot. We always joke about whether it is food or deadly, but I have never been certain enough to try. The books I have bought always show a very perfect example or different stage and I can never place them with enough certainty to try.

Caldeiras do Castro

This was a nice afternoon hike. It was not a particularly long route, and we actually extended it a bit beyond the park because the weather was nice. The route was 6km in total, there and back, and mostly a flat easy walk.

The path starts in a park with a few walking paths. Caldeiras do Castro has a series of little pools that form naturally in the riverbeds. There is a walking path that overlooks the baths and contines along the river.

The larger walkway was not very long, and we found ourselves “como cabritas” pretty quickly. But the trail is clear and continues along the river. It is lovely and Galician Green.

After a short distance, the path moves off from the river and it is not straightfoward to recover. There is a farm blocking the river access, so you have to walk along the perimeter until you can guess where it is polite to cross down back into the river.

Fortunately, I encountered a farmer driving his tractor. He was able to give me directions and a few tail wags. He was, indeed, a very good boy. He pointed us down the middle of the farm where there was a small path between two fields.

On the other side of farm was a very sturdy bridge… so of course I had to cross it.

And on the other side was this really lovely island where the river split to flow around the sand bar.

The island was not very big but it was pretty! We had hoped to cross the river here to return, but there was not a second bridge so we went back the way we came.

We followed the river back and passed a little mill.

Returning to the car, we took the route closer to the water rather than the path higher up, so this is essentially the close-up of the first photo in the series. It looks like aa nice place to take a swim. It was a little cool for me by the time we came back, but I would absolutely return.

Farmer Dog was so cute he needed two photos. I could not decide which was more adorable so here is the other.

O Hio, Galicia (ES)

Another stunning day hike along the cliffs of Galicia.

We started the day with a bonus stop at the Igrexa de Santo André do Hío.

This rural church seems small, but inside it is exceptionally lovely. The pale stone with white and silver accents gives the church an eerie, haunted feeling. Maybe “magical” is a better word.

We hopped back in the car and headed to the Playa de Nerga and made our route following the cliffs along the small peninsula.

We walked along the beach a ways. It was covered in large vieira shells. I have never seen so many in one place! It was really hard not to stuff our pockets full of shells and weigh ourselves down at the beginning of the hike.

And then of course… the UP. There was a lot of UP this trip. Strava recorded about 425m elevation gain, but it felt like more. It is funny to me that since moving to Galicia, half of my photos are at an angle, but it is a little difficult to figure out which way is level sometimes.

Once we reached the top, the path smoothed out a little. There were some ruins to explore as well as some incredible views.

We were able to shed the long sleeves and hoodies. We had anticipated a gray day, maybe a little rain as to be expected in Galicia in early spring, but the sun burned off the cloud cover around midday. We ended up getting a bit warm as there is a lot less wind here than the northern Costa de Morta.

We made our way down to the next beach.

And back up again… to the Faro de Punta Robaleira

At some point, we stopped for lunch on a rocky ledge that overlooked the whole coast in every direction.

And we found O Facho de Donón. It is an old roman sanctuary that is part of an ongoing excavation of a large castro.

This is where we turned our path to circle back. We repeated the same path back through Donón, then turned inward, away from the coast, to skip the peninsula and head back to the car. If you follow me on Strava, be sure you dont repeat my path unless you have thick pants and solid hiking boots. This inland path was a trail for jabali. My friend suffered a bit and said we were going “como cabritas” which has been an ongoing joke since.

I am not sure how it is possible that we somehow had to go up so much to go down. The path back down the mountain was at least a third uphill. My legs were a bit dead by then.

Round trip was a little over 17km, and took almost 5 hours with exploring the castro and taking lunch. We made it back to Playa Nerga with little time to spare. We watched the sunset before heading back to the car.