We have successfully completed what is considered the most physically demanding day of the Camino. We commenced in Villafranca 28.9km ago and have now arrived in the Galician mountain village of O’Cebreiro. The 28.9 isn’t the full story as you also ascend 900m and that apparently translates to an effective overall distance of 33.4km.
To add to the distance we had some fascinating weather. We started in a steady rain that then became quite a hard rain that then morphed to hail, followed by some brief sunshine, cloudy heavy mist, very loud and close thunder, more hail and finally snow. Looking out the door right now it is absolutely dumping down (I would be quite excited if I was at Jackson Hole! – already a few cm accumulating on the ground).
Our morning had a perfect Camino start. One of the pilgrims staying at our lovely albergue has a birthday today. As I was thanking our hostess (Maria’s mom) on the way out this morning, I mentioned the birthday – the result was her husband playing one very beautiful song on the guitar before we all departed.
We’re both physically tired and quite mellow. We’re staying in a Casa Rural that seems to be quite a pleasant dump and as there seem to be no rooms available in town at all, it is just fine.
Camino 2017 - the sequel 