Belesar´s elbows down to the Minho River

Well, the glamor ended this morning after my 6 a.m. breakfast in the parador. The lovely night "watch-woman" made me a fruit plate, along with some pastries, and let me make my own coffee with one of those fancy machines that you put the capsule into. By 6:40, I was on the way out of Monforte de Lemos.

After about 6 or 7 kms on a very un-used paved road, there was a turn off into what you might call a "green tunnel." Beautiful, they are, as they take you through the country-side on paths between two rock walls on either side, but peregrinos know they frequently spell trouble. In about 5 minutes, I had already sunk into mud about 3 " above my boots. Ok, time for Plan B -- get off the path by climbing up on the side in a break in the stone wall and walk on higher ground. Well, that sounded good, but the higher round was filled with brambles, stickers, overgrown with green stuff generally. I fell backwards and miraculously managed to avoid falling down into the goop I had just tried to avoid by climbing higher. Getting up was a bit difficult -- I think I sounded a lot like the wild boar I saw a couple of days ago and then heard ripping up the dirt and growth all around -- there´s a term of art for this -- snouting? routing? rooting? There were no arrows in this maze of paths and I just kept trying to stay on the "main path" but I was not ever sure.

Somehow, miraculously, not only did I manage to stay in one piece and avoid serious injury, but I also emerged into a clearing (after pushing my way through overgrowth so thick it was almost impassable) and saw a mojón (a camino marker). I was stunned, I had actually gone the right way! I was even more amazed when I ran into a resident a few hundred meters further on who told me that everyone gets lost in this stretch. All it needs is a can of paint and some arrows, and I wish I had the time to do it.

The walk changed dramatically after that -- 6 or 7 km in the continuous drizzle to a beautiful romanesque church in Diamondi, where there are two very sweet cow heads looking down over the doorway. Just as I arrived, the rain stopped, so I could take my poncho off and get out my camera. From there it was about 3 km down on Roman Road (I´ve walked on a lot of roman roads, and this one was particularly unfriendly), but the reward was going down towards the Minho River, with vineyards and small hamlets looking over everything. This is the stretch called Belesar´s elbows, presumably named after the shape of the downhill path.

Even the steep up afterwards was well worth it, it was beautiful and lush. A woman emerged from a house in a remote hamlet and told me to eat cherries, eat them here, they are going to rot. So I took her up on it, and it gave me the energy I needed to finish the rest of the walk into Chantada.

Well, here I am in the Pensión Gamallo (?). I have stayed in worst places before, I´m sure, it´s just that I can´t think of them. It´s pretty bad, but it´s just a night, and I had a great meal in the Mesón Lucas, so that kind of offsets the grungy pensión. And then tomorrow another 28 km up and down and up and down.....