28 km along the Sil River

This was a beautiful day. I left right at 6 to try to get a big chunk in before it got too hot (temperature highs are in mid to high 90s these days). I was really lucky because for the first four hours I had almost no direct sun because of the mountains. So much of today is high above or right along the Sil River. There were several little villages, some with rehabilitation of old houses going on. No bars but enough fountains, so the water bottles kept getting refilled.

At about 8 km, after a pretty tough descent to the river level, I saw an old man walking toward me. I took a chance — es Ud. Casimiro? Turns out it was the now 92 year old Casimiro. He lives in a house by the river, where he operated the mill till the 1960s to grind all the grain from the area. No more grain grown here. He also told me how in his youth he walked to Northern Portugal to buy cattle at a better price. No more herds here either. His wife died several months ago, he told me, and his two sons are now insisting he move to Madrid. No way will that happen, he assured me. 😁 He invited me in for a coffee and I would have loved to continue the conversation, but with mid 90s coming my way I declined. One of those sad decisions that I felt I had to make. He told me to tell all my friends to come visit him.

All in all a great day—lots of snippets of conversations with people working in the fields, out for a walk, or renovating an old family home.Read more