Day 33, Pradela to O Cebreiro

Our Irish roommate, Matt, was worried before bed that he wouldn’t know what time to get up because his charger was broken and he had no watch. In the event he decided to get up at 4am and leave around 4.30 - his rattling around woke me up pretty thoroughly. A shrieking cockerel and a cacophony of barking dogs conspired to ensure I didn’t get back to sleep after his departure. I don’t know why I ever thought the deepest countryside would be tranquil. We left at 6am, before dawn, again hoping to get as much of the day’s walk done before it became too hot. We speculated about how far Matt had already walked.
For our first 3kms, we made a steep (and in my case, cautious) descent into Trabadelo, the town where we had planned to stay the night before. And then there was a long stretch of fairly flat walking by the side of a road and a river. Many of the little places we passed through were quite pretty but somewhat blighted by an enormous highway overhead. The only saving grace was the absence of traffic - in stark contrast with the UK, the motorway infrastructure here seems to vastly exceed demand.
The most challenging part of the day began about 13kms in when we began the steep ascent to O Cebreiro. We were expecting temperatures above 30. I fortified myself first with coffee and a banana and we began the climb after 9.30am. It’s a rise of 630m over about 8kms - and Dominic, who cycled it a few years ago, had mentioned that it was very demanding! Some was through wooded areas and I was grateful for the shade (although Fiona was tormented by flies). Once again, the views were stupendous. When the walking is so hot and arduous, I have to remind myself to stop and look around, because my instinct is just to plod on until the ordeal is over!
We stopped at every opportunity to rehydrate and, were greatly surprised to bump into Matt, last night’s roommate. We thought he’d be at least 10 kilometres ahead of us but he said he’d realised it was too dark to walk at 4.30 so he’d gone back to sleep on a wall in the village. He intends to walk 40-45 kms every day but I find myself amazed that he ever reaches the destination he’s heading for. He’s an electrician at home - afraid I’d be reluctant to employ him! I really wanted to tell him to get a bus to Sarria to ensure he completes the Camino this time (he’s tried before but he didn’t manage it) however, I stopped myself, mindful that I not his mum.
At the next village we stopped again and, after a recuperative choc ice, we carried on the climb and crossed into Gallacia, the final Spanish region of our Camino. Within another kilometre we had reached, O Cebreiro, the beautiful little village at the top of the mountain where we are sleeping tonight.
After a very filling lunch of mounds of goats cheese with quince jelly and honey, we slipped away for a nap and a cold shower (no hot water at all in our albergue). We also rearranged some of our later bookings to try to avoid overly long days in the final week.
With its curious thatched roofs, O Cebreiro looks quite different from the villages we’ve passed through in Castile and Leon. It’s got great charm and I’m very taken with its Celtic character. (Evident in the music and the jewellery). There are wonderful views from all sides - I’m not sure I’ve been anywhere surrounded by more natural beauty.
At 7pm we went to mass in the Romanesque church in the village where the lovely priest played church music on his iPhone at strategic moments in the service and addressed the pilgrims in broken English as well as in Spanish, blessing us all before we left and giving each person a stone.
We had dinner with Ramona and later watched the sun going down together over the hills. We had to stay up until 10pm to catch it but tomorrow is a short day and the temperatures are cooler up here in the mountains so we thought we could allow ourselves a lie-in.
I’m feeling sad that we are approaching our final week but am trying to savour each day that remains.Read more