Combarro

The 30 May was sunny again so we departed for Ría de Pontevedra. Not much wind though, so progress was more by engine than sail power. We passed the large tourist resort and beaches of Sanxenxo to port and ended up at Combarro near the head of the ría. It is a very picturesque old fishing village with every house seeming to have its own hórreo. It was great fun exploring the narrow streets. One part is very touristy with a row of small shops selling mementos. Witches seem to be a popular part of Galician folklaw so there were numerous witch dolls available, even some which cackled as you walked past.

By luck we had timed our visit to avoid the normal bus-loads of visitors so we found that it was delightfully uncrowded.

Not so the café where we sent some e-mails. The Café Miami had a great atmosphere, full of octogenarians noisily playing cards; it was more like a social club than a café. Great fun to watch and we felt part of the action as the noise level went up and down depending upon their good fortune, or not, with the cards. They were certainly more raucous than my grandmother and her friends when they used to play canasta!

The weather is fine again so we are back to eating dinner in the cockpit. There have been just 2 or 3 evenings since we have been in Spain when we have not eaten in the saloon, so overall we think we have been very lucky. We ate the chickpea, pancetta and chorizo sausage casserole that we have made up and which is based upon the Galician cocido dish. It’s got a great smoky pimentón flavour from the chorizo sausage, of which we’ve turned into great fans; they taste fantastic.

We also met again up with the Swedish couple on Zenobia and had a great chat. We have seen them in Ribadeo, Viveiro and now Combarro but we never seem to coincide for more than an evening. They are heading for Turkey, sailing in 2-month stretches interspersed with trips home, so it’s not unrealistic that we will keep bumping into them.

Having done the touristy location and the e-mails home, we are now going to spend a few days looking for nice anchorages in the ría, hopefully with some good shelter from the strong northerly winds which have been forecast.