A Caruna
25 June 2016 | A Caruna, Galicia, Spain
David and Andrea
After rounding Finisterre, our track took us rather slowly to Camarinas and a lovely quiet anchorage for the night before an intense day of motoring in dense fog along a rocky but windless coast to A Caruna. We sat glued to the radar as there were numerous fishing and sail boats about that did not have AIS transmissions. Their radar signatures were small and erratic and they would only “appear” visibly at about 500 metres. Evasive action was required from time to time. Entering the harbour was not problematic fortunately. We did not get to see the Tower of Hercules from offshore but rode around on the bikes to see it by land the next day. The tower was first built in the second century CE during the Roman period but its current form is from the 18th century.
The name of the city possibly derives from Celtic “Cork Orunnach” meaning the Harbour of Brave Men. Apparently, the Celtic king Breogan founded this city, then known as Brigantia. His son left here to voyage to Ireland and then returned, supposedly having seen that island from the top of the Tower of Hercules. There is an impressive modern statue of Breogan at the tower.
As always, we seem to arrive in new towns on Sunday or the day of either a national or local public holiday and so it was in A Caruna. The Midsummer fiesta of St John (San Xoan in local Galician language) was celebrated. Bonfires are a major feature of this event and participants have to jump over the fires 3-9 times chanting incantations against witches (yes, pagan origins). The main focus of this activity was the otherwise lovely curving strand of the ocean beach. Shamefully in our view, the morning after the party the beach was covered by hundreds of acres of rubbish piles containing plastic bags and other debris as well as burnt wood. Some bonfires were still smouldering and being extinguished. An acrid smell pervaded the area. The town council was in the process of cleaning the beach with an army of men and various tractors.