I started by walking through the woods of A Fraga, I wanted to do this whilst the weather has been dry beacause, to get to where I wanted, I had to cross a mountain stream, with water-falls, on stepping stones. Last year the stones were under water in the winter and I could not get across, I froze with panic half way across, for a few moments I thought I was doomed to stay there forever! This year there has been no rain and the crossing was easy. I then got onto the road to Navea.
This road seemed to go on forever but the scenery was lovely.
The little church in Navea.
A reservoir beyond Navea.
It was the 'beyond Navea' that became interesting. I thought, naively, that once I got to the village I only had to cross a bridge and do a short walk to Trives. The picture below shows Navea in the distance and the road down to the bridge, taken from somewhere on the 9kms walk from the bridge. In Galicia, if you go down to a bridge you always have to walk back up again!
I did discover the answer to something that has perplexed me ever since I started walking here, that is, why is there a canal across the mountains. Now I know, the canal carries the water from the reservoir at As Guistolas to the top of this hill where it runs down pipes to an electricity station, I suppose to some kind of turbine, rather clever really. The road visible is part of the route I had to take to get back!
The reservoir is then formed by all the water flowing down the pipes and the the water is used again firther up, clever really.
I was exhausted when I got home, I thought I was going for a 4 hour walk but it took 6 hours. I didn't start till 11 and it was still very chilly then but it warmed up, as long as I was in the sun, which I was most of the time. My left hand swelled up whilst I was walking, it has never done that before, and today my hips are painful. Old age is starting to tell
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