Today was uphill. 29km uphill. Every single step uphill. A long strenuous day, particularly at the end.
The first 22km was up a beautiful valley which we shared with a fast flowing river, the old road (now very quiet) and the new motorway which soared overhead on a tall viaduct and often disappeared into tunnels. The river and two roads crisscrossed each other all day. Our path was at the edge of the old road, separated from it by a concrete crash barrier. The valley was steep sided and heavily wooded with pine and chestnut trees. This made it well shaded and ideal for walking.
There were villages with shops, bars and cafes sprinkled all along the valley and it was quite idyllic. Again we met a young man selling cherries and we bought a bag to eat as we went. We stopped mid morning for cake and coffee and at the 22km mark for lunch at Las Herrerias. A hamlet that lazily stretches along the river and whose name derives from an iron foundry. From here you can get a ride for the last 7km on a horse, no previous experience necessary, the horses go by remote control.
These 7km rise 600 metres, probably the steepest section of the whole camino. Not too bad at first on a sealed road and still among the chestnuts. Then it turned into a rough track and went straight up. It was a bit wet and the deposits from the horses made it a bit slimy and slippery. Fresh deposits from the horses attracted a zillion flies. We made good progress here as we are used to bush tracks in NZ.
About half way up we broke out of the trees and into open farmland and we started to wilt. Another 30 degree day and the sweat was pouring off us. Every item of clothing we were wearing was soaking wet. Fortunately we came to two fuente with fresh, sweet cold water. We guzzled this down, splashed it over ourselves and refilled water bottles. We both felt strong, with no sore legs but the heat was killing us.
About 1km from the top we passed a freshly painted concrete marker that records the fact that we have moved from the region of Castilla Y Leon to Galicia. This is the fourth and last autonomous region of Spain we will visit.
The tiny hamlet of our destination, O Cebreiro, population 50, straddles the ridge and is one of the significant places on the Camino. First it has a hospice that may go back to the 9th century and even today most people stop here so it has plenty of accommodation, cafes, bars and souvenir shops. The other significance is that Don Elias Valina Sompredo was the parish priest here. I have written about Don Elias in an early post so won’t repeat it here, suffice to say that the recovery of the camino for our time is largely due to his scholarship and hard work, and he is responsible for the yellow arrows.
Our walking seems to be much like our cycling. Slow on the downhills (poor technique), average on the flat, but good going uphill. We find a comfortable cadence we can maintain constantly. We also probably have a good power to weight ratio for hills.
Ipod theme tune for today: The Beatles, Fool on the hill.
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round