STAGE 6, 31 AUGUST: SANTA IRENE-MONTE DO GOZO
Total distance: 18 kilometres.
GROUP 1: COMPLETE STAGE
Starting point:
09:00 h Santa Irene (Rest Area).
Meeting point:
3:30 p.m. Monte do Gozo.
GROUP 2: SECTIONS
– Perform a 3.5 km section from O Pedrouzo (C.P.I. Camiño de Santiago) to O Amenal
– Carry out a 3.6 km stretch from Santiso to Lavacolla (bandstand).
– Fulfil a 3.4 km section from Vilarmaior to Monte do Gozo.
Meeting point:
3:30 p.m. Monte do Gozo
GROUP 3: SECTIONS
– Carry out a 3.6 km stretch from Santiso to Lavacolla (bandstand).
– Perform a 3.4 km section from Vilarmaior to Monte do Gozo.
Meeting point:
3:30 p.m. Monte do Gozo.
Our last day on the Camino will take us from Santa Irene to Monte do Gozo, in a hard stage for us due to two important inclines that remind us that getting to Compostela has never been easy. In spite of the proximity to the Galician capital, and that we will move near to the Airport, the stage runs for the most part through rural environments and forest tracks, a route that will make us quite comfortable to enter the municipality of Compostela.
As we get closer, the rituals increase. The modern ones are created when the pilgrims repeat some ceremonial, like touching the zero kilometre in the Plaza del Obradoiro, or burn the boots in Fisterra, for those who continue until there. We know the medieval ones by the Codex Calixtino and other later stories of French, German or Italian pilgrims. Therefore, we know, for example, that in the Monte do Gozo there was a milladoiro (calvary), a place with a strong energy in which small stones are stacked following an ancestral cult linked to the habit of the Celts to drive away evil spirits by throwing pebbles at the crossroads. With Christianization, the ritual has been understood as a symbol of gratitude for the arrival: the stone is placed at the time that one kneels and prays. The Monte do Gozo´s milladoiro had the same significance as the one of the Cruz de Ferro (Foncebadón, León), in the highest point of the French Way in the Peninsula, that fortunately has been conserved. There, at the foot of a simple wooden and iron cross about 5 m high, the pilgrims have been building an impressive mountain of small stones since its starting placement, in the 11th century.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31st. SANTA IRENE – MONTE DO GOZO
8:30 a. m. Pick up at hotels (Pazo Brandeso, Pazo Santa María)
8:50 a. m. Departure to Santa Irene (from A Paínza). Pick up at Hotel Suiza
9:10 a. m. Start of Stage 6
3:30 p. m. End of Stage. Departure to Arzúa. Meeting point: Monte do Gozo
4:10 p. m. Arrival in Arzúa. Distribution in hotels
7:00 p. m. Pick up at hotels
7:30 p. m. Dinner at A Paínza
9:00 p. m. Distribution in hotels