O Cebreiro to Triacastela

A tough mostly downhill 22km day, our first full day in Galicia.

We had a good breakfast in the bar at Hotel Cebreiro and were on the road soon after 8am. Dawn is at 8:45 now so we used a lamp for an hour or so.

Weather was cool and misty and once there was light to see everything was lush and green.

The halfway mark was at Fonfría. The walk to there was some down and up on a very good path of hard packed dirt. We ate some lunch at what seems to be one of the new Galician government run albergues. Very modern and spacious.

From there it was quite a steep drop into Triacastela. About 600m vertical over 11km distance. The path was good, no loose gravel or shifting rocks, but still it was painful by the end.

The weather was what we’d heard is typical of this province. Misty, low cloud, breezy with occasional rain. We both needed the ponchos for an hour towards the end when the rain got more serious.

As we were approaching Triacastela we were astonished to meet the fast walking lady from Indiana we’d dubbed “Hot Wheels” when we walked into Pamplona with her and her 3 friends, way back early in our trek. There was great hilarity all round.

Then we stumbled into the Pensión Casa David and got cleaned up after a harder than expected day.

Now for a cleansing radler and a laundromat session.Read more