Stage 15: Malpica - Niños: 25 kms, fog, sun, 27

Fog In, Fog Out!!

Yesterday we took much of the day to transit by train and bus to Malpica, arriving late afternoon. Found our nice hotel and after dropping our gear we went out to see the town, such as it was. The town is a bit like Tofino, in that it is shrouded in fog seemingly all the time. It was 30 everywhere else, but here! This didn't bode well...no sun, no views...manaña we will see.

 We walked into the harbour to try and find a formal starting point to the Dos Faros, but found nothing but a nice harbour.

With cool signage.

The first lighthouse.

And a fish sorting plant.

Up this morning a bit later than usual...no Rob to get things going I guess! We had breakfast and were on the trial in the fog by 8:40. Rob never let me do that! 

Frankly I was getting a bit worried. All the fog, all the beautiful scenery. I took this photo for you at the lookout. Pretty nice huh?

Yup I was real concerned! We should have known that Fogust would extend into September. I was thinking that this would be a pretty dull walk. Annemarie was excited, the trail easy as we passed above the ocean, "I'm already thinking about returning to do this again", but that would change. Meantime, I tried to take a few photos, but the results were disappointing...I think this is the church that we were supposed to be able to see.

These are the heather and small flowers along the route.

I think this is Annemarie?

Maybe we should skip this and head for Portugal and find Neil and Sarah early...surprise!! Barriers to entry. Rob it was so damp I had no problem seeing the spider webs.

Then slowly things began to suggest an improvement.

For sure there were still barriers.

But things were beginning to improve, the fog to lift a little.

Yet other barriers to our passage continued to show themselves...a knee deep stream.

But we were prepared for this having packed some face towels for this portion of the Camino to dry our feet and remove the sand.

Off we went again, and almost suddenly the sun broke through. 

It continued to ebb in and out through the rest of the day, but mostly it was out. Being a sunshine sort of guy, my spirits rose immediately. Can't say the same for Annemarie who really likes to walk on cooler days. The villages we had passed through, agriculture and fishing based all came into view.

Now we could see the empty beaches and in the distance the headland we had earlier walked around, still shrouded in fog.

The beautiful colour of the water and the vistas revealed themselves to us.

Things seemed pretty rosie, but of course this too had to end. A climb was waiting as we passed through a fishing community.

It was a freeking steep climb!

As we climbed we were lucky enough to see something very special. We'd read about these she'll fish gathers who risk the surf along these coasts on very low tides to harvest a shell fish considered a delicacy in these parts. They literally take their lives in their hands when they do this job. Several young men along this coast perish every year. 

You'll just have to believe me, the ocean was just exploding around this young fellow and his mate (just out of the photo). We saw them swept off the rocks several times, fortunately roped in.

We descended and worked our way along this very rough trail...looking back.

Then it was time to climb again! Not again!

This ain't like any Camino I've ever been on! Eventually the first major lighthouse, faro, showed up ahead. You can see I'm pretty excited!

The station was pretty cool. Not as cool as the lighthouses on the Oregon coast, but cool in q different way.

It had a weird hood peice! 

After this, more ups and downs, great vistas...ok here's one.

Lots more ups and downs...take my word for it. And then we were nearly in.

Last night we sorted out a taxi to meet us at Niñons with the generous help of our hostess. The password when we called was Annemaria, Niñons. The driver knew what to do and was there to meet us very soon afterwards and drove us on to Ponteceso where we will stay in a small pension for two nights. The taxi guy picking us up just after sunrise tomorrow to deposit us back where he picked us up today at 17:00. A long day! The funny story is when we walked into the bar where we sit now waiting for our dinner and having a caña of beer

The young lady behind the bar hearing us speak English asked if Annemarie was Annemaria at Niñons! Small town, word travels fast when there are strangers in town! So that's it for today. A long story, but much happened. It's 21:00 and dinner time here where everyone just gets going around now. Full bar!

Wonder what we'll see tomorrow? Hi to Neil and Sarh who should have arrived in Lisbon by now! 

Buen Hike!