Wednesday 21st May

Today we have come to Aguete, a small place on the south shore of the Ria de Pontevedra. It is by far the smallest place that we have been to, and we nearly chickened out during the approach. But now we are here, we are glad that we came in. More on Aguete next time.

For the last two days we have been at Cangas, on the north shore of the Ria de Vigo, which was our first stop after Bayona. Although some of the cruising guides are a bit dismissive of Cangas, we have it to be a nice little place, with all the facilities you could wish, and the normal mix of old narrow streets and tiny shops near the harbour, surrounded by the newer town and all the necessities for modern living. The small marina is sandwiched between the ferry berth and the fishing harbour. They were very welcoming, and squeezed us into a vacant berth for our stay. The only down side is a rather wheezy and out-of-tune town clock, which performs on the hour, every hour, and has direct line of sight to PROGRESS's cabin. But we did have a pod of dolphins come right into the harbour.

The main fishing harbour caters for the local boats, both inshore and trawlers. But just outside it is a quay and refrigeration plant that accommodates the largest deep water trawlers that come in to unload. Again we have been reminded what a major industry fishing is on this Spanish coast.

The ferry runs half-hourly across the Ria to Vigo, about a 15 minute trip. We went across on Tuesday, and spent some time exploring the old town, including climbing up to the top of the O Castro hill, which at 136m above sea level gives a fabulous vantage point over the town, and over the Ria out to the offshore islands. On the way down we took a slightly different route, passing some rather fierce looking ladies sat on chairs outside their houses, but eventually got back to the Pescaderia with its collection of shellfish restaurants spilling out onto the pavement.

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Down by the quay, the town folk have a number of statutes of which they are proud. I have included a photo of one entitled 'the Bather', which represents someone diving into the Ria to swim. I only knew that when I read the guide book - my original interpretation was quite different. See what you think.

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Editors note: I have tried to include a map for those who asked. We are currently exploring the stretch of coast between Bayona and La Coruna. As an aside, in an attempt to get a good internet connect to file my last dispatch, I found myself sat in a bar with WiFi, waiting for the computer to warm up, drinking Guinness and watching the guapas come in and out. It’s a hard life on the front line!

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