Trabadelo to O Cebreiro

Elly, our host at El Puente Peregrino, is an excellent and creative cook and she fed us and our Danish friends Penny and Frank a beautiful meal last night. Red lentil curry, Shakshouka, and chocolate brownies all accompanied by vino tinto of course. Elly also left us a basket of goodies for a predawn breakfast.

Today was another big contrast.

We spent the first four hours walking up the Valcarce river valley. We walked along the verge of a quiet road which has mostly been replaced by a motorway we could see in the distance. The river in a steep sided valley was rarely more than 20m from our path and it’s sound was a relaxing backdrop.

We passed through a village every couple of kms and stopped for lunch at Las Herrerías, 12km up the slowly climbing valley.

In various places small herds of dairy cows grazed in the riverside meadows, their cowbells tinkling peacefully..

After Las Herrerías the final 7kms to O Cebreiro was dramatically different and physically demanding. We rose 800m in altitude sometimes climbing along narrow rock strewn paths with 13% slope.

Towards the end of that climb we crossed the provincial border into Galicia, our sixth and last province on this camino.Read more