Beautiful Galicia

Now we are in Galicia the landscape is totally different. It's a but like England. Wooded forests and valleys. We arrived into Villa franca del bierzo.,a lovely town with a church that was so grand looking. Then feeling super fit we opted for the alternative mountain pass route rather than the road option. The path up was ridiculous it was almost ladder like but we pushed on. I kept thinking this next rise is surely the top. It wasn't for a very long time. Funny thing was we didn't see a single other person, pilgrim or local traversing the path, I wonder why? 🤔
It was extremely beautiful looking down on the valley below and then to finally reach a forest of horse chestnut trees and the way down. Hmm somewhere along this path we managed to miss the turn downhill to Trabedelo. We ended up in a little village that we shouldn't have ended up in and added another 2klms to our day. The way down was steep, slippy, exhausting and we finally reached our albergue "Casa Susi" at 4.30.i may have been a bit grumpy and exhausted. I don't think we'd ever arrived so late. We just had time for a, shower and rest before a wonderful dinner. Susi is a pilgrim also who has walked many caminos and ended up here to begin her dream of running an albergue, 3 weeks after she opened the door a Spanish chap turned up by the name of Fermin and they fell for each other. Now they are married and run the place together. All the food for dinner comes from thier garden and it was superb. We feasted on vegetable lentil soup followed by pasta with Veggies and poached pears with Greek Yogurt for dessert plus plenty of wine. We met some great people and had a great night.
The next morning was freezing as left with no brekkie, there'll be a cafe surely!
There wasn't for ages and by the time we found one we were ravenous. In Ambasmastas a happy smiley lady made us a goat cheese omelette with tomato bread and excellent coffee. Worth the wait.
The walk was lovely through wooded hill's, little villages and fields with cows who jingled as they ate. They wear bells around their necks I suppose so they are easier to keep track of.
We arrived in the village of Las Herrairas the last place before the trek up to O Cebreiro, a mountain village which has us a bit scared. There's talk of hills like ladders and some people opt to take a horse ride up instead of walking.
We were lucky enough to get a double room(matrimonial room they call it) for the price of a bunk and $5 extra for our own bathroom. The only bad thing is you also get a matrimonial pillow, one long biksyer pillow, share my life, share my pillow!
Luxury!!
We had an excellent meal lentil soup which was brought out in a tureen and was enough for a family of four (I did my best)
Hamburger & chips for main, so, so. Mark had asparagus salad and trout and we both had cheesecake for dessert.
We waddled with bellies full back to bed to rest before the climb the next day.
After brekkie the next morning we stepped out into the cool morning air and began. We wanted to walk as far as possible before the horses caught up to us.
We saw the evidence of the horses previous journey on the path. My thought as I walked was how am I ever going to get these boots back into Australia!
I think I've trod in every type of farm animal shit there is to tread in.
The guide book says of this section, to keep walking and think happy thoughts.
Despite the shite, it was pretty like, fairy elf World, lots of moss and greenery. Up up up we went but it wasn't as bad as the mountain climb of a few days before. We arrived at the last stop Cafe and treated ourselves to a tuna empanada or Galicia pie and an orange juice. Now we thought the next 2 klms is going to be rough but in next to no time we'd reached the top and looked at each other and said "was that it", either we are getting fitter or this portion of the trek was a bit over exaggerated.
O Cebreiro was sweet if a bit touristy but I guess they've got to make thier money whilst they can.
We decided not to stay there and trekked on down a little to Linares and cooked ourselves a nice meal at the really good albergue there.
As I walked out of o cebreiro I realised I'd left my glasses in the bar we stopped at. We'd chatted to an Irish guy and two Danes there. as I was stood on the path realising my loss phil(Irish bloke) appeared and said are you looking for your glasses!
Anyway turns out the Danes have them and will leave them in a bar at our next stop for me to pick up. This is the way if the Camino. People will help you out and go that extra bit to return things that are lost. All achieved with the help of whatsapp. I received a, photo of the bar where I'd find my sunglasses and sure enough I picked them up the next day. Awesome Danish guy named Erik!
We scored another private room at Tricastela and another awesome meal. Salmon and I tried the local soup "caldo gallega, there were a lot of unidentified bits in it which I gamely ate but one furry bit I found was left at the bottom of the bowl. Don't think I'll be trying it again. The main course of salmon and salad was much better, followed by what Spaniards call flan but is basically creme caramel, a chocolate one tonight, yum.
Next stop is San mamed de camino and we got there through a forest once again. A lovely days walk with some amazing ancient trees.
San mamed was awesome a lovely albergue with a lot of heart it was paloma y León albergue. Grwat vegetarian meal, more lentil soup but a very good one, quiche and potato frittata, fruit,sponge cake and joy of joys they had a kettle so I was able to get a cup of tea.
Sarria is the next big town and the 100 KLM Mark. It's the place where a lot of fresh pilgrims will join the track as you can walk only the last Hundred k's and still receive a compostela. Let's see what happens I hope it won't be so crowded but it us what it is and as little Eva says you get what you get and you don't get upset.Read more