Monte Facha

Monte Facha is a lovely spot dripping in history perched on the windswept and spectacular hammerhead peninsular at the upper head of Ria Vigo. It has been a site of interest to man from prehistory, there are intact remains of a neolithic settlement, a Roman temple and a Napoleonic lookout. We needed to catch a bus to the small village of Donon, this wasnt possible and the nearest we could get was the equally small village of Hio. This then necessitated a 5 kilometre walk along mainly roads until we could get off piste and begin the climb up the hill.

As the weather was sunny and the road wound up through eucalyptus forest this wasn't a great problem.

Once we had reached Donon we located the beginning of the track and began to climb. small lizards scuttered out of the way as we huffed and puffed our way up the well made but rather rocky path.

the half way point was a stand of eucalyptus and a more heathland landscape developed.

Already there were good views towards Islas Ons and Ria Pontevedra.

Soon the lookout came into sight and only when you had gained the summit was it possible to appreciate the neolithic remains, these were excavated in 2008 and are remarkably well preserved being in the form of roundhouses.

we had brought a picnic lunch and settled down to eat admiring the frankly stunning views across to the Ria Vigo and Islas Cies. we settled down on some rocks and enjoyed our sandwiches.

it was difficult to tear ourselves away but we had planned to walk back to Cangas and this would mean a good 12 kilometres of path and we were unsure of at least half of the route.

As I looked over towards the Islas Cies I was again tempted to sail over and spend a few days on the islands as they really looked to be fascinating and extraordinarily beautiful. I knew that the tourist ferries would stop running in a few days so decided that they would be our next goal.

we dropped down to the small village of Donon. There are several paths and cycleways that go out to the end of the headland and the two lighthouses there but we needed to find the way towards the beaches at Barra and Nerga.

We began our search for the path at the car park at Donon which has a tubular shell sculpture.

We dropped down into the dense pine woodland and scrubby heathland that characterizes the country inland of the famous beaches. I will admit to getting slightly lost at least a couple of times but we succeded in finding the very end of the beaches at Nerga.

We had a lukewarm coffee in the one remaining cafe that was open before setting of for the by now well known track and remaining 10 kilometres or so to cangas. The possibilities for walking in the area were looking very good indeed. The lack of a map made life more challenging but it is always fun to discover things by chance.