A very strange few days here in Northern Spain. Sunday night we were rocked to sleep by the wind on the edge of Hurricane Ophelia. Monday we enjoyed an interesting day in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostella – beautiful churches and bargain tapas. All going well until we returned to Boris to find Chris had left the lights on and the battery was flat! Luckily we were rescued by some other vanners who jump started us. Then we found out that they had turned back from heading south to Portugal (our planned route) due to the forest fires which have been deadly and extensive here. Their spread was hastened by the winds of the hurricane. Quick change of plan – we decided to camp on some coastal islands off the Galician coast for a couple of nights and review the situation. Beautiful O Grove island was our base – lots of wading birds and nice walks. We then ventured to Illa Arousa where we enjoyed a stunning coastal walk around the nature reserve. Finally a typical Galician meal in a super restaurant. Not for the faint hearted. It included Oysters, clams, razor clams, goose barnacles, cuttlefish, Octopus, and tripe! Amongst other things!
Normally, we don’t like rain on holiday. However last night and tonight it has poured down which has helped extinguish the fires and ease the drought they have here. So we are grateful!
The next day we continued exploring our island, O Grove. It was a great centre for fishing and canning sardines. Today we did a short walk on a coastal sculpture trail, dodged showers and visited a very interesting Sardine museum!! Oh and bought some local wine. Then headed south, visited the monastery of Moio, and finally reached Portugal.
