October 13 Vega de Valcarce
Day 29. 26Kms. Cacabelos – Villafranca del Bierzo – Trabadelo – Vega de Valcarce. A very cold morning’s start (its well in to Autumn and at 600 metres.) and then a bit of a trudge following the old road and the rio Valcarce to here in preparation for crossing the sierra in to Galicia tomorrow.
Camino Quotes (They’re like camino kilometres in that they don’t make sense but they are). There are several memorable ones but this is one of the best. This one is from Claudia from Munich. We were sitting outside our alburgue in Foncebadon, mid-afternoon, discussing our next day’s plans, she’s part of the discussion and lying on top of the wall surrounding the plaza, sunbaking, (as you do) and she sits up, incredulous, and says, “What do you mean, it takes 9 hours?!! It’s only 30 kilometres away!” We all look at each other, nod knowingly and check our calculations again.
Today’s quote from Leo. You know he’s getting fit when the following conversation occurred.
Me: We’re going to be mountain hopping most of today so up and down till we get there.
Leo: Yeah but it’s pretty flat up and down
October 14 Alto do Poio, Galicia, Spain
Day 30. 22 Kms. Vega de Valcarce – Herrerias – O’Cebreiro – Alto do Poio. A bit of a haul up to 1335 metres. but it was a very pretty stroll and a huge sense of achievement on reaching Galicia.
22kms across the range. Beautiful views spoiled by the smoke haze from a bushfire. The water bombing helicopters were busy yesterday and today. When you’re only traveling at 5kph it takes a while to get clear. Whilst we’re in no danger it makes you think about hard it would be to get off the mountain if you had to. O’Cebreiro at 1330m was a pretty town and obviously a tourist destination. Hopefully we peregrinos gave them a whiff of the Camino. From there we descended and climbed to the Alto San Roque at 1270m and then onto Alto do Poio at 1335m. Some really steep pinches to get here but some lovely flat(ish) sections as well. We opted for the Albergue del Puerto that is nothing to write home about. Tomorrow we’ll head to Samos and perhaps Sarriá by Sunday. So, lots of climbing today but it was really lovely along the ranges with everything taking on its autumn colours.
October 15 ·Monastery de San Xulian, Samos
Day 31. 25 kms. Alto do Poio – Fonfria – Triacastela – Samos. A really delightful if chilly stroll down the mountains to Samos on our way to Sarria. We were here by lunch and decided to have an early afternoon to get some washing done.
October 15 Casa Barbadelo
Day 32. 20 Kms. Samos – Aguida – Sarria – Barbedelo. A bit of a challenging walk in the dark up country lanes and roads till we got to Aguida to try and get a coffee. Honestly, if there are any drugs in rural Spain, speed is not one of them. Then a lovely stroll to Sarria and on to here. Apparently, the Camino Frances has been closed near Triacastela due to a fire. There is a lot of smoke here but it’s all behind us.
October 16 Portomarin, Galicia
Day 33. 20 Kms. Barbadello – Ferreiros – Portomarin.
Well, we are now under the 100 km. mark and we have to seriously resist the urge to start doing big Ks. as the Compestella feels like it’s just down the road now.
A very smoky and dark start to today’s walking as smoke and cloud screened out what was left of the moonlight. Sunrise was at 0845. We walked through old country lanes and hamlets down to Portomarin. Some of the oak forests were especially beautiful. The path occasionally followed moss covered dry stone walls through the forests and I expected to see druids with golden sickles harvesting mistletoe in this very Celtic area. Galicia has its own language and is fiercely independent.
Portomarín is a town like Adaminaby, but much bigger, where they created a reservoir and moved lots of the older buildings up the hill. The reservoir is very, very low and we got to see the ancient low level bridge. The church is a very different style to what we’ve seen elsewhere and was moved up from the valley floor stone by stone.
Along the way we saw these long-horned cattle, and these odd storage units (el horreos) for cereals. The lip or flange halfway up stops mice getting into the cereals.
It’s been much colder today that we’ve been used to and very overcast and smoky from fires around the place. We caught up with Kirsty who had bypassed Samos for the more direct route so Leo, Kirsty and I had dinner at the most expensive restaurante on our entire camino.
October 17 Palas de Rei
Day 34. 26Kms. Portomarin – Gonzar – Palas de Rei. We left Portomarin @ 0700 and walked in the cold rain and the dark till it got light @ 0900. A couple of video links home were very cheery if not consistent. It cleared to a lovely but still cold day and we got here @ 1330. The last couple of Ks in to town are just blank to me for some reason. We now have only 70 kms and 3 days till the Compestella.
October 18 Arzua
Day 35 (5 weeks). 30 Kms. Palas de Rei – Melide – Ribadiso – Arzua. We headed off in the dark again and managed to lose each other for a while until Melide. Then it was a very nice hike through forests including several eucalyptus forests. We were probably sub consciously pushing ourselves as we didn’t stop for lunch until 1400. There are definitely a lot more people on the Camino now but the quality of accommodation and cafes has certainly gone up too.
October 19 Garcas, Galicia, Spain
Day 36. 30 Kms. Arzua – A Calle – Pedrouzo – San Paio, Hotel Garcas. Another dark and wet start but it was beautiful walking through eucalyptus forests through the mist. Funny but the local bottle recycling depot looks like a bar but we still managed to get a coffee. We had a long day but the final push to the Compostela is very hard to resist. There is a special pilgrim’s mass on Friday nights and its part of the plan.
Lighten The Trip Fantastic 