Long day to Castroverde

The choice for these two days is to do a short day today and a long one tomorrow into Lugo or to do the long one today and have smooth sailing into Lugo tomorrow. I picked the latter option, but at 2:15 as I was saying goodbye to my friends (who took the first option) and starting up a 2 km climb, I had my doubts. 

What a beautiful day. Better than my words are these pics:  

There was a great coffee stop after a couple of pretty hard ascents. 

And then a few more ups and downs through some abandoned hamlets. 

Then through the little town of A Lastra, which now has two bars as opposed to none four years ago. 

The Camino Primitivo Is having a huge surge in popularity. Sometimes I wonder if the government is rushing to pave paradise in its eagerness to make the trail accessible to more people. This is NOT an improvement over the dirt path that was there the last time, I can assure you. 

And since we've entered Galicia, there have been many kms of this -- bulldozed broad spaces covered with gravel and interspersed with granite indented boulders for drainage. 

I am really not sure where the Xunta de Galicia gets its Camino advice!

Tomorrow to Lugo, only city in the world I believe with in tact Roman walls. And then I'll be just a hop, skip, and a jump from Santiago!