Country Life

CAMINO FRANCÉS – Day 30: Thursday 8 May 2025 – PALAS DE REI to ARZÚA (29 [+4] kilometres)

Galicia is green, verdant and lovely. A part of me is surprised at how lush everything is here, but then we are up in the hills, and getting close now to the ocean, where the maritime westerlies first make landfall. In so doing the prevailing winds deposit considerable amounts of rain on this corner of Iberia – around 1,900 mm falls annually on Santiago de Compostela, more than three times the amount for London – and so, despite the approximate latitude of 43 degrees north (compared to 51.5 degrees for London) – there are similarities in the colours of the springtime landscape.

Today’s walk, similarly to the last two days since I left Sarria, has been characterised by a rolling landscape, much of which is wooded and with the remainder turned over to mixed agricultural uses of both crops and grazing land. Across Galicia the Camino Francés passes through several towns (including my last three overnight destinations of Portomarín, Palas de Rei and Arzúa, and my lunch-stop today of Melide), as well as a number of small villages in between, and this footfall generates much trade to incentivise cafés, bars, shops, hostels and other services along the path. The various Camino routes into Santiago now attract around half a million registered pilgrims per year, with this section of the Camino Francés from Sarria accounting for around 50% of the total, and accordingly on many sections of this last 100 kilometres of the trail the small villages and hamlets seem to merge into one another, with commercial outlets interspersed with farms, small-holdings, and private houses (often with well-tended yards and kitchen gardens), as well as the churches, chapels and cemeteries that have presided over the pilgrimage route for centuries. The resulting small-scale scenery holds interest and surprise around every twist, turn and undulation of the path, and so, despite the numbers of trekkers, my last three days of walking have been, if not spectacular, then most pleasant.

My Camino path today cut across the grain of the land, and the walk profile that I have in my guidebook shows a great many undulations, some of which involve prolonged climbs and descents, as the way crosses eight rivers and several smaller streams. The distance covered, together with several hundred cumulative metres of climb, took me over seven hours, and probably accounts for my weariness this evening. Today was scheduled as my last ‘long’ walking day, and with just two shorter walking days to go now into Santiago, I will hope and pray for some reasonable weather amongst the forecast showers, so that I can enjoy the final stretches of my journey to the full.

Looking at my list of Blog headings, over 300 now, I think that I am correct in saying that I have yet to feature Bryan Ferry or Roxy Music. So I can put that to rights now: ‘Country Life’ was the title of Roxy Music’s fourth studio album, released in 1974, that might be said to mark the zenith of the ‘art rock’ genre. Ferry wrote all of the songs on the album (a couple each with co-writers from the band, Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera), and apparently he took the name of the album from the title of the rural lifestyle magazine ‘Country Life’. As there is no title track, I get to chose the song from the album to include on the Camino playlist that I will be compiling on my return – I am going for ‘The Thrill Of It All’, as probably the most suitable number.