Somewhere Slowly

After a quick cup of coffee at Casa Pepa we soon came to the main road, where there was an albergue, a bar/restaurant (where The Scouse Spouse and I once had the Best Bacon Butty in the Known Universe) and a great little bakery, and the bakery even had a nice clean toilet available to pilgrims just outside. So if there is no bed for you at Casa Pepa, this is a good second-best.

Then we wound our way steadily up, up and up hill, at one point there is even a combined rest area and viewing platform with a binocular thingy for those who wanted to really study the landscape and views. Confusingly we could see water from there, and if I had been walking in from the meseta I would have squealed with joy, but alas it’s ‘just’ a lake, apparently. On a gorgeous day like the one we had though, the view is well worth the effort, lake or no lake.

We were also on a bit of a lookout for the mythical monster-sized beast Vákner, which is supposed to haunt the surrounding hills hungry for Christian blood. Luckily – or a little bit disappointingly – we didn’t see hide nor hair of any beast, and our own was left in Santiago. It would have made for a more interesting walk though (the beast, not the Beast, it’s too heavy).

It tried to rain as we came closer to Olveiroa, so we decided it was time for some fancy lunch. Et voilà: We arrived at a very fun eatery – menu on roof tiles, bar furniture made out of agricultural bits and bobs, clearly a place where the locals came to eat, which is always a good sign. I asked the server to recommend something and he said everybody loved their bestseller, the surf and turf. When it arrived it was essentially a plate of anchovy fillets marinated in oil and vinegar, some tomato and olive salad, and a cocktail glass with deep fried squid pieces … I’m assuming the salad was the turf? I ate what I could; Nanci had a steak, I had steak envy. The beer was nice though.

Then we continued up and up and up, past more petroglyphs we couldn’t see, looking down on the lake or reservoir further and further below us, on our way to O Logoso. I had booked a room there early because I really wanted to stay there again. It has a mix of albergue and rooms, and a few tables serving food, but mostly I remember the lovely friendly and fun staff from when I was there last. Who knew what covid might have done to the business, so I wanted to leave my money where my memories were.

As it was, they had expanded and renovated several rooms in another building, so what I knew as the bar and little tiny restaurant, was now more like a reception office. There was some confusion when I arrived and introduced myself, when it turned out someone with a name very similar to mine had checked in 20 mins before … if there was a mistake, they quickly recovered, because we were shown to a nice room in the new block, spacious and clean and practical for pilgrims with open shelving for packs and clothes, extra blankets etc. The young couple running it really had made a lovely little place and I was so glad we had secured a room. (Also there is an uphill shortly after it and I was happy to postpone that.)

When we asked about the very striking large photograph of a balancing stone in the restaurant, the young host told us it was just up the hill, an ancient site which had been drawing crowds for millennia, which sounded really interesting. He also told us about a natural pool nearby we could walk to for an evening dip, but while we had an ankerbier to mull it over, we decided we were too hungry to do either. Then after dinner we were too tired. The thought stuck though …