Day 8 – to Moreira Beach

I neglected to mention yesterday that the Camino dos Faros has an excellent website, where there is all the information needed, https://www.caminodosfaros.com.

Cicerone published a book on the route last year, which I haven’t got, though I have very many of their other publications.

After a van coffee, a local village cafe coffee, a fill up with water for the van, and a purchase of some fresh bread, we sauntered south.

My destination this morning was the Cemiterio dos Ingleses in one the the most remote parts of the trail. There is a rough road down to it, but so rough and of six kilometres, that it puts many visitors off. I got the van there, but very slowly.

The HMS Serpent ran aground here in 1890, resulting in the loss of almost all of its crew, 173 out of 176. All of the dead are buried here.

The ship had been caught in a heavy storm, and in an attempt to find quieter waters had come a long way off course, she was in the Bay of Biscay. A resulting court martial concluded the cause to be a navigational error.

The HMS Serpent, famous victim of the Coast of Death

There was a moderate wind warning out today, but with bright sun and clear skies that enhanced the visibility, and it was another quite spectacular few hours on the Costa da Morte.

Being on the move is okay in the wind, but it was too much to loiter around the van for long. It was a job even to open the doors. So, on return in mid-afternoon, we moved on a bit further south, to what I hoped was a quieter bay, at Moreira Beach.

It is a tremendous spot for a night over, reasonably sheltered, and the only building, a farm, a couple of km away. Parked with the door out the wind, I had the van open all afternoon, and took a shower, and read my current novel, Death on a Galician Shore.

Just before the sun went behind the hill we took a wander up to get some perspective and see the end of the light of this fine day, though the night sky, a couple of hours later, was quite special also.