Dry land (mostly)

The weather continued to be warm and sunny with very light winds, Lynne got up early to look around the local market, this is a regular event on Tuesdays and a very large number of stall holders on Friday morning. Lynne loves to look around markets and we are lucky to have this one on our doorstep.

I had also downloaded a small app for my phone called Wikiloc, no idea what the name refers too, possibly a play on Wikipedia of location. Anyway it is a superb little aid to finding interesting walks in the local area. We tried it out by downloading a path ( or rutta) which seemed to leave the town and go along the wooded ridge above the town via a little chapel on the hill.
Both Lynne and I love to walk, in some respects Spain has been a bit of a disappointment in this regard. Its easy to take for granted the fantastic access we have to the countryside in the UK.,Being brought up with National parks, wilderness areas the fabulous Ordinance Survey and the Right to Roam enshrined in law, we really are spoiled in comparison to some other countries. Apart from an almost impossible lack of maps in Spain , what public footpaths there are tend to be paved and not particularly well signposted or publicised. Galicia  is slightly different, there are paths to be found however all the previous caveats still apply.
This little app has proved to be a godsend, it is a treasure chest of routes "ruttas" uploaded by local hikers and mountain bikers. The first trial run was a walk which began literally outside the marina. It climbed up through a confusing warren of streets and back tracks past barking dogs and suddenly we were far above the town at the site of the small chapel of San Roque.

A splendid spot for lunch. The views over the town of Cangas and across to Vigo and the Ria were superb.

 After a lunch of bread cheese and ham, just about the only cooked meat available in Spain it would appear, sometimes I long for a beef and pickle sarnie! we continued to follow the route on the iPhone which then climbs up through Eucalyptus forest.

We cut the walk short after another hour or so, we needed to catch the shops and as usual we had chosen to walk in the heat of the day, we just never learn......

Exploration continued with a walk along the coast to Moana, the next town along the Ria from Cangas. We had already used the coast path to walk to LIDL supermarket but had failed to find any continuation of the path. Once again Wikiloc came to the rescue and we discovered a small path which dropped down to follow a convoluted route along the shore.

Lynne had correctly pointed out that this walk would probably be better off being left to low water as it involved quite a lot of walking along beaches and we were on a quite large tide, I dismissed this as being a bit alarmist and as usual Lynne proved to be perfectly correct and we had to wade around some sections and climb up rocks awash with waves at several points.

It was Lynnes introduction to "coasteering", which is great when you are 10 years old but is not quite as pleasant when you are in your late 50s!

The walk however was very pleasant and interesting. There are a number of seemingly disused buildings used by the fishing industry.

The small fishing boats however seemed to be well maintained and obviously still well used.

At one point the path was perched on stilts above the water.

This was preferable to wading as there really wasn't a great deal of beach left!

The path continued on to another small chapel The Ermida dela Virgen delRemedio.

These surprising finds are a constant delight, there is a graveyard and a bell tower kind of construction whose pupose wasn't very clear as the small statue atopthe dome was watching out to sea I am guessing its the virgin watching over the sailors and fishermen.

we then dropped down through more Eucalyptus woods to another small beach. This one has a statue of a seabird on a pole for some reason.

For the first time we could see Moana in the distance and we soon dropped down to the outskirts of town and found a small bar with a balcony overhanging the sea where we enjoyed a well earned coffee.

Moana is a pleasant town and we looked around briefly before spotting the bus back to Cangas.