Things were back to normal today–I was the first one up and ready; Pam was last. Since the day was starting out with a climb for the first mile and a half, we decided to fuel up before heading out. We usually walk anywhere from 1-3 miles before we eat.
The albergue actually had eggs for breakfast. The meal came with chorizo and fried potatoes. Pam and I split it (she like fried abortions) while I ate the sausage. We also got pastries. This was the biggest breakfast we had eaten in over a month (and I’m sure it was the cause for us moving so slow today).
The hike out of town started out in the shade but quickly moved into full sun. Uphill even in early morning sun (if 9 is considered early morning) quickly drains Pam and me. Shaun thinks anything less than 40 C (104 F) is a cool spring day. He regularly sits in the sun when Pam and I crawl into shady spots–Australia has f’d his body (and mind–or maybe that’s from birth) up.
When we climbed the final 600′ up to O’Cebreiro, we climbed on up even further to a scenic overlook where we had a 360 panoramic of the mountains we had just traversed. Coming back down, we ran into Andre from Switzerland just finishing his climb up from Laguna. We asked him to join us for a cool down drink, but he had a good sweat going and wanted to keep moving.
O’Cebreiro is another charming alpine town with stone streets, stone walls, stone buildings, and stone women. This town has taken stone to the limits and it works. This is a town easy to fall in love with. We ran into several other peregrinos we know (Edele, Adrian, and Kat) and chatted for a bit.
We’ve convinced ourselves that this is an easy day, so we decided to turn it into more of a bar crawl (minus the alcohol). Next stop is Hospital (not “the hospital” but a town by that name). Meandering out of town, we ran into the Russian/Lithuanian woman we met a few nights ago. Julija (sounds like yulia) is a 29 year old engineer from St Petersburg, Russia. We would end up leapfrogging each other most of the day.
This was another day where we had only gone 5 miles by 11. As we were leaving Hospital de la Condesa, Katalin (from Hungary) came into town and asked if she could walk with us for a while. We waited for her to “freshen up” and get some water before heading out. Shaun had already left, so he didn’t know why we were so far behind. He stopped in the next town for an Aquarius and then decided to slowly meander on. We caught up with him just as the trail was leaving the road. He was worried about us–afraid that Pam might have buckled under from her cargo of wipes which she refuses to leave behind.
The trail to Alto do Poio is a deceptively steep climb. We made the next bar to find Edele, Adrian, and Kat already there. This is when we realized we weren’t the only bar crawlers today. Katalina ordered a pilgrim lunch and we had our usual chips and diet soda snack.
Since it was already after 1 and we weren’t even half way yet, we decided to get a move on. We walked at a 3.5 mph pace to the next town. Fortunately, it was only 2 miles away because none of us could keep that pace up all the way to Triacastela. I admit to being the one who caved in Fonfria. I had to have an Aquarius to cool off. We ran into Julija having lunch there. Katalin headed on by herself to try to make Triacastela at a decent hour. She usually makes reservations ahead and didn’t feel comfortable with our usual pattern of get to town and take what’s available.
The next town was Biduedo and we did something unusual here–we skipped it. That was a first for us today. The trail was a pretty steep decline now so we could maintain a good pace. After an hour and a half of walking, I needed another break. I stopped in a hotel that had a courtyard out back. I kept an eye out to make sure Pam and Shaun came in to rest as well.
We took off shoes, had cold drinks, and wondered why we were going so slow today. We’ve been hiking for almost 7 hours and only had 3 hours of breaks so far. We were now only 2.5 miles from Triacastela. My book differed from Shaun’s by saying we were done descending. The author of my book is a “knob head” (nice English term that I’m not going to explain).
Pam was complaining about sore toes so I showed her how to bounce down the trail to save her feet. She was tired enough to try it without argument and found that it actually worked. We, more or less, ran the final distance into town. We got there about 10 minutes ahead of Shaun so we just waited in a shady spot for him.
Shaun had picked out an Albergue he wanted to stay at. We went to check it out and ran in Adrian and Pete. Unfortunately, they only had 3 top bunks still available and I get up too many times a night (50 year old man…). We went back up the street and found a really cool place called Altrio. It kind of a modern interior in an old warehouse stone building. The Camino provides.
Coming into town, we noticed a 5 Euro special for a hamburger, fries, and drink. As soon as Shaun got showered, he headed back up to check it out and I said we’d join him as soon as Pam got ready. By the time we got there, Shaun had ordered and was getting ready to send us a picture of what he had found–ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. For some reason, Europeans don’t like any flavorful sauces on their burgers (which are usually undercooked veal). This was a bonanza for us.
Pam and I left Shaun in search of ice cream. We ran into Julija again at the supermarket while we were stocking up on necessities–ice cream and M&Ms. When we got back to the albergue, Shaun came in and told us Chris and Bob were just down the street having a drink. They left a day ahead of us out of Leon and we were afraid we weren’t going to get to see them again. When we got there, we found an entire group of people we knew including Adrian, Edele, Katalina, Chris, and Bob. It was like a reunion in Triacastela.
We all plan on getting to Santiago de Compestella on June 16. It’s hard to believe that we are almost done with this pilgrimage. Today, we crossed the 100 mile to go mark when we crossed into Galicia. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can for Shaun, Pam, and me–we have walked every step from St Jean Pied de Port in France. I’m pretty sure Megan and English Rob have as well. Other than the 5 of us, I don’t know for certain of any others. We have not used a cab, bus, taxi, bike, or horse on this entire trail. It feels good to be so near to accomplishing what we have set out to do.
We heard from Richard again, this evening. He will be arriving in Santiago on the 12th and will walk with us starting on the 13th to be with us when we finish. I’m looking forward to seeing “bus man” again.
