Episode 29 - The Lighthouse Way

0:00 I'm Vince and I'm Emily you're listening to the lighthouse lowdown We're using our new setup for the first official Recording we are although it seems to keep changing the setup. There's little parts of change. Yeah So I have to change headphones right now for example, so where are the other headphones they in the bin? There's some right here like those. Okay, I sound like a robot from Transformers. Why Transformers specifically it just sounds like the You know the divergent computer I've never seen Transformers any of them. No, well the first one's good. I think most people would agree. All right today is the day And I can't find my mouse Okay, I have a buoy also apologies to everybody for this podcast coming out a little bit late because I Had to recover from travel Lots and lots of time zone changes. Where were you Emily?

1:12 I went to Sweden and then I went to Spain and then I went to Japan That's wild. Yeah, and our listeners got to hear episodes on Sweden and a Japanese lighthouse A dream come true. Okay. Have you ever heard of a range light on a lighthouse? No It's a thing. Oh You can see it on the screen. Oh, I won't look I won't show the this to the people but so a range Light or a range lighthouse is when there are two lights that appear on the horizon on a lighthouse So there's two lights coming from one source and the purpose of those lights Is that when you align the two lights when they appear to be one light, then you know, you're on a correct lineage Yes, so this is description. They're both in the same lantern room Where are they? No, they're out ones on a tower ones on the light room So range lighthouses appear as two lights on the horizon However, when you line them up correctly, they appear as one atop the other or one behind the other A Mariner would then know that they are on the correct path into the channel So it's like the two lights are in two different locations Two different locations or they're above and below or in front or behind Or there's two in the tower. I didn't see any details on it There are not very many of them, but I assume this is one you talked about recently Somewhere that had a weird color light on a tower Yeah That one's a little different because it's there's no direction you could travel in which they would overlap because they're being shared in the same

2:45 Tower but pretty far apart. So I think that was something else but They would line up I guess. Yeah. Okay. We're gonna go back to Spain What yep, you left Spain behind the dust We did not And we're gonna go back to Spain There's a trail we're gonna talk about okay, so it's a hiking path that is on the coast We're gonna show you the map and everything. It's a great website that we're gonna shout out like 20 times Oh Camino dos Feroz the lighthouse way, okay, so it is a Why we need to stop picking lighthouses where we have to pronounce things it's hard enough for it to be most most of the World is that way?

3:31 Yeah, and I don't speak any Spanish if you didn't tell that already Can't even order so We struggled in Madrid. Okay, you know does fair us first thing. Let's go to the map So I can show you where it's at. This map is also from the same website We're gonna shout out if you want the source, but if you zoom out you can see This is all of Spain here Mm-hmm. So Portugal north of Portugal the far north West coast is where this is at and along this route there are At least eight maybe 11 lighthouses Oh, I say that because I see a couple contradicting sources What but I think there might be multiple lighthouses at one of the locations maybe or several locations I got an older and newer build. They're not like official or something Yeah One of them is a lighthouse. I'm gonna cover eventually I can see you have it on there. It's Tara. It's Tara Yeah, so we'll talk about that too. I won't talk about it in detail. Okay You speak more Spanish than I do it's hoppa does that mean stop sure we have a French friend a French friend a Spanish friend who will correct us on what?

4:51 Yeah, we don't know. I don't know. Don't listen to him. I don't know Spanish I I just took Spanish like ten years ago Yeah, we are gonna watch a video okay, and This is the website coming us Okay, me no does Ferros the lighthouse way. So this is already translated for us, but this website is a nonprofit group Trusky are what they call themselves. They're volunteers and nonprofit and they just for this lighthouse or Or a collection for the the area. Oh the route the hiking route Okay, and the hiking route is there's the map again hiking route is detailed in their video But yeah, so 200 kilometers I have the conversion I think it's like a hundred 20 yeah hundred twenty four miles. So people have let me rewind I Found an article which got me started on this subject. The article was from I think the New York Times It's below we'll go over it soon. Okay, but this lady What do you call an article writer Author yeah, well this author Journalist is I think the word is going for went to Spain to go on this trip Oh, and they talked about doing it in six days So she did it in six days alone There's recommendations on this website for eight days or ten days

6:22 so she was booking it she was booking it and I think the eight day is like the standard and they talk about Being on your feet for like eight or nine hours a day. Okay, so that includes time for stopping that includes These towns you'll walk through spending time at lighthouses and beaches and such so the the path was put together By this group and what they what they put together. So it's a series of beach paths like a national That's not national park but national park ish area. Yeah, fisherman's paths protected and then just kind of local maps So they're all pieced together. So if you average it out ten days, you'd be going 12 miles a day so to me that doesn't sound like a lot for hiking but I Don't know just depends. Just so everyone knows Vince and I are very different in our ideas of a good time Hiking is not one of those things that I Would elect to participate in while on vacation. I go on vacation just to hike so so You can send me postcards So here we go eight sections of an average of nine hours per section Which I like and that they tell you that builds in the pace of taking photos and stopping This is the topographical map of the ups and downs. What's the time layout if you were to drive this instead?

7:42 Let's look at the map again. I don't know that you can drive all of it. Oh, yeah, it looks Yeah, the highways are inland So there's I'm sure there are roads to all of this It's like a mess it talks about how all of this hike it's kind of interesting all this hike is On popularized areas. They're not highly dense population. I actually have a population map of Spain But like there are there are people around very few of them are doing this hike So it's not like a really popular trail But every town you you plan to stop in town so you can stay at hotels airbnbs Guest houses, there's lots of different places to stay. That's cool. And it's hugs the Coastline the entire time. So you can stay at the hotel The coastline the entire time so you'd never are too far away from the ocean Yep, and I was going to show photos this whole time, but we'll just watch the video at the end It's like four four and a half minutes. Okay Um, it's beautiful. It's just gorgeous. So and for those that are listening to the podcast you can Go to the show notes and watch the video on your own. I'll just cut out audio. That's We can post some photos too, but yeah, we'll cut out that audio So they're not just listening to the audio the video already made for us um, but Yeah, so it's along beaches along the coast. There's lots of places to stay. There's lots of good food I'll talk about I have a comment on the food in spain in uh, the article And all right

9:13 I could be convinced to do this hike. It just you were gonna You were gonna force me to go on a hike sometime I mean there's so like I was able to go on a hike once it was only 35 miles but it was Very very treacherous as far as change in elevation goes is in alaska, alaska 35 miles. You're saying this one's how long? Well, this is longer In time and in distance 124 miles distance That is bogus for like eight days. We did ours in five So we went up and down look up the golden staircase if you're interested It's a big change in elevation. I take it back. I don't want to do this one and the chill cute drill anyways But this so like that hike I did in alaska. We were out in the middle of nowhere. We had a satellite phone you know, we brought everything in on our backpacks and we camped and This is a very different type of hike. So this you'd be staying in hotels. You'd be having showers You'd be eating out potentially at nice dinners Um depends on how much money and time you want to spend but They'll set this up for you If you want to pay them there's a package where they'll set it up for the certain days and they'll hook you up with different Um places to stay and then there are even options if you want to not carry your baggage So you can start on your day and have someone take your luggage if you want In a car and they'll drive to where you're going to end up for the night So you can just have your little day pack on you. This is like sissy hiking Well, sissy hardcore hiking. It's yeah, it's not nothing. It's moderate difficulty

10:45 There are again multiple sources that conflict one another on how difficult this is the lady who wrote the article uh was talking about baseball sized calluses and On her feet. Yeah And some people in the comments were saying no Well, she did it in like breakneck speed. She did didn't even have a suggestion for that type of speed She wrecked it ralph. So This is fisterra. I read that means uh land's end. Yeah, uh monica said it's like the lighthouse or Oh, is this what we're looking at? She told us the lighthouse at the end of the world or something Yeah, nice So this in the article was covered as the most populated area that the hiker saw Okay, and it's a termination of this trail. So you go north to south. Oh, I see it said Bring sun gear sun lotion sunscreen sunglasses because you're going to be facing west the whole time um essentially But yeah, really interesting. I'm gonna go back to the website. The website is so good I really don't typically like to single source my info so much but But it had it all it had it all and it also the purpose of the website is to promote people going to the region Okay, it's like a travel so they did a good job group. Yeah, so it has it hasn't been stages here Because we are the lighthouse lowdown. We got to look at this part of their website The focus on the lighthouses on the lighthouse way. This is the page that shows eight lighthouses. I'm pretty sure uh nariga

12:17 Lighthouse oh rukundu. I cannot pronounce anything. It's okay lighthouse and locks villain Muxia What would you say there just Muxia Muxia turin on So it goes I shouldn't be chiming in i'm not the person oh, yeah, we're having me wait I only saw like five one two three four. No. Oh those are That says islands yeah, I assume there's lighthouse on the island. Oh, I see it's in the distance click on it Yeah, there it is Right behind the drop down that comes in front of the mouse so um the the main thing I wanted to talk about today is just this trail and then I thought about talking about all of these lighthouses and I thought that'd be too much for one episode Yeah, we can split it if we want to look into more spain's lighthouses. We certainly can but I have not seen A trail like this and I assume there are others maybe in the united states too where it's a lighthouse hike I think that's really neat. I've never seen that is cool. I've seen that lined out especially a website that's dedicated to it So there's 11 lighthouses mentioned in the article eight of them I found on the website. Yeah, that's where I was It's just like that There's a couple in one location and they just they put the most popular one and then it's like oh if you want to go Out of your way, there's no more here. Right. Let's see if I can find this

13:49 population density Of spain this is where The Finisterra is yeah kind of get a reference Of that area and then I wanted to show you so this is their pamphlet document that they actually publish in HD So it talks about d. Yeah, so it talks about the group Look at that. Oh, it looks good eight sections eight lighthouses ten villages fishing ports birds Food just looks incredible. Oh, this is that was why I wanted to talk about this This is apparently the capital seafood for spain. What is this coast?

14:30 It's like the best it's like most of the food I guess that they're known for in the area Talks about each one. I like the little Typographical kind of expect how steep it's going to be that day. Oh god that one looked bad so this article i'm going to show you this lady just She had her own opinion dina mishave this is the one that Uh hiked it in less than a week. Yeah Yeah, so i've told you some of some of the outtakes that I remember and I highlighted a couple things I wanted to show you. Okay From her article that I thought were interesting the coast of death so that's Costa de morta Right is the that's this area and so it was named that from british sailors According to her british sailors who there are several notable really big fish fish wrecks Ship wrecks. I bet a lot of fish died too There's there's one reference where there's over a hundred people that died and I think three that survived on that shipwreck So obviously there's been a need for lighthouses in this region throughout history Yeah, and that explains why they're all in this area, but it is the the coast of death so said So yeah, and they talk about a group of local friends started piecing the caminio together in 2013 Fisherman's paths farm tracks beaches livestock trails and the occasional back road So that's kind of where all this came together. She's talking about the group Okay, the website so uh, here's she's talking about how many people 320,000 in 2018 hiked

16:04 The most popular trail caminio de santiago so So there's not a lot of people she said she had passed five other people on the busiest day of this trail When she happened to go i'm sure there's seasonality to it, right? Yeah, here she talks about some of the food so spanish word for gooseneck barnacle and galatian octopus though And she's all set She had to figure those out to order. Okay Barnacles are a regional delicacy and what many fishermen A pass on the trail are harvesting from the steep cliffs of the trails passes above that the trail passes above Uh local preparation of octopus is to slice it into discs saute it in olive oil and top it with paprika Serve it on a wooden platter. That sounds delicious. I would love to try that She exaggerates a lot. She talks about boats and waves sounding like gunfire And so hey, we don't know if she's exaggerating it seems exaggerated Because if you go down, these are all the credits And if you go down to the comments, that is what originally got me excited about this A lot of these credit, um, a lot of the credits are for restaurants. So if you want to look at what food we're talking about That's right um This person talks about how an experienced trekker would never do Never do the route that she did in the number of days she did giant blisters, of course Uh, everything is as pretty as it is on instagram. Everybody's a secret superhero. All you need is some fashionable gear, right?

17:36 so american oh Brutal what what are they saying that she did a bad job? Yeah, everything I just said So she's just like she's criticizing her like this is not a reasonable way to hike the trail. Of course She had a bad experience. Oh, she was trashing it. I thought she was saying that it was good And she and so okay, so a lot of this article I i i i've read and I haven't illustrated to you is uh Her complaining and talking about herself. Oh, I see. Yeah, okay So that's where these comments come from. All right, and did she do the The lighthouse way exactly or she just the reason why she did the trail on her own. She just went on her own This person maybe this made me smile. So do you remember yamon? I can't pronounce it right but from spain Yeah, the ham we had everywhere. There was a museum of yamon in madrid where we stayed so Uh, this person was talking about being from glacia spain Did you spend a week there and not even call the ham by its proper name?

18:37 She called it prosciutto. Really? And she's a journalist a shame My god brutal. Yeah Uh glacia, it's a hidden treasure most americans never know about mostly This person says they're suggesting that it's better that the tourists don't know about it because of the quality of tourists She must have i'll have to read this article she must have been this must have been just a very poor article Yeah, I liked I liked the very last comment because it's the last positive light It's like despite the writer's bad attitude poor intro and predictable end of the story I did read the article and I want to take this trip Unfortunately, I welcome Usually I welcome personal insights, but not this time fear of missing out indeed Wow, she must have really why would you you can read the article?

19:26 Okay, I feel like we can link it up because it was it was public. Um, I can't remember where it came from I want to say new york times. Yeah, all these food recommendations. She talks about getting some really good stuff Washington post that's where it came from neat So I want to show you the video now and then if it stirs a memory i'll talk about it But I really would like to do this. It'd be a lot of fun. All right Be like a retirement hike for like a fit retiree. Yeah A fit retiree. Yeah, you got to be in shape. Gotta retire early to go on this hike we're gonna watch the video if anybody wants to Watch it and then come back to our podcast a little pause go to our um show notes and Take a watch and that's the website trackski. Those are the people so caminos come Camino dos faros.com Vincent I was saying during this video that they're they are showing The places that you'll come across while you're hiking but they don't really show the conditions in which you will be hiking He said that you'll want to be wearing hiking boots instead of tennis shoes Which I would have been in the tennis shoe club. Yeah, I can't remember a there's a quote in one of the comments that was like You know, it's like kind of poorly translated like it would be a fool to wear tennis shoes or something like that It would be a fool's errand or something. Yeah, something made me smile But google translate doing its best. I'm thinking all these places that you you'd be

20:58 crossing through are really pretty but if You're going to be working so hard to get from a to b. I wonder how much you'd actually be able to enjoy Uh, like each of these places You know, it's like you would travel and stay somewhere and get to see everything It's like are you just seeing it while you're passing or are you going and getting to experience it without being? Dead tired. It depends on your fitness for sure But they well that they talk about they built in time for you to see everything so to visit the lighthouse to take pictures to stop and eat, you know, like Um, I think it's kind of build your own adventure. Yeah I think it'd be cool. But yeah, I think hiking boots camera Water maybe a snack or two some twinkies in the bag sunscreen be fueled up. So is this one you're thinking of? Uh, no, it's Well Do some research and then i'll do an episode on it All right. All right. Yeah, so short one today. I don't know. It's just cool I think uh, there'd be a hike dedicated to seeing lighthouses. That's gonna be it. We're done All right technical difficulties over here in the pod we've left it alone for too long It's a rough day getting back to it But that's what happens when you have awesome adventures all over the world You got to come home and get your podcast back up to speed. Yeah, you got to get everything straightened back out Yep, but that's a very cool topic. I like that and one of these days will cover each of the lighthouses that they have On this trail. Well, that's the thing because I just saw it on the screen

22:30 Okay up there the green arrow by the little guy. Yeah, little trotsky. They have those painted along the trail So they help you to know that you're still on path. That's good fun fact. I'd be stressed out for like How do they keep it? Do they come by and repaint it often or yeah trail management? Okay, it's like everywhere neat I don't know anything about hiking so my grandpa Did trail management when he was a young man like with a chainsaw and an axe? Oh my gosh in the middle of washington state so just make sure it's like passable and I would not have guessed that's a job you could have yeah, cool, especially back in the day So, all right. Thanks everybody for joining us today kind of a shorter episode Keep up to date. We've got a couple more coming Mm-hmm. Yeah, i'm gonna keep up to date as we're getting back into the podcast life after where can they find our podcast?

23:23 well, you can find us on spotify or apple or google or anywhere you find your podcasts and You can get a link to each of those on our website pod page.com Slash lighthouse lowdown and you can find the link to that in our link tree link Which is going to be in our show notes and that link will also take you To like our instagram and social media and stuff if you want to find us on linkedin or whatever see pictures from this lighthouse episode And almost every episode. I think all every episode Check out the instagram. I created the instagram a little bit late And but I did post to catch up. So I think they're all on there. Very nice. YouTube is also live It should have every episode after I want to say 19 and I still need to catch up and do the first ones But for now, we're just keeping up. Yeah, keeping up with the youtube days. Yeah, it's enough just to keep up Thanks everybody. Thank you. Hope you enjoy listening and we'll catch you next time on the lighthouse lowdown