The frequency with which we encounter towns each day as we hike is increasing. On day one, hiking from Burgos to Hornillos del Camino we encountered 2 towns, Tardajos and Rabe de las Calzadas. It was 6.7 miles from Burgos to Tardajos, the 1.36 miles and finally 4.86 miles to our destination of Hornillos. Two towns in the 13 miles. Today, we encountered 10 towns in 17 miles. The longest distance between towns was 2.13 miles. As we get closer to Santiago, the towns are getting closer together. Why? Is it topography? Most likely. The Meseta was composed of grain fields. Towns were few and far between. Now we are in the mountainous regions (hilly really). The towns are now strung together like pearls on a necklace, a short jump from one to the next. This creates a bit of a party atmosphere along the way, somewhat like a moving party. Everyone stops at nearly every eatery/pub along the way (usually these towns are small-one pub per town) so that every half an hour everyone gets together again and the conversations start up where they left off at the last pub. Andrea, from Denmark made it a point to have a coffee or a beer, or both, from each eatery along the route. This made for a lot of fun today, as every half hour was a reunion of sorts. In our traveling entourage was Andrea and his wife Hannalea, John and Dana, ReLuca, Andrew, Aaron, and a few others. At one stop in the morning we met Colton Ort, a musician of the Bob Dylan genre, about 22 years old. He offered to play for us as we sipped our Colas. He is really, really good. He sings folk songs from the 30’s and stuff he has written. He will be worth following in the future. We thought we would see him often during the day, but we must have gotten out of sync with him. One performance was all we got.
This morning we started the day climbing about 800 vertical feet in 3 miles to the ridge top town of O’Cebrieno. It has been rebuilt in the last 20 years and is a picture postcard village from yesteryear, a Disneyland of the Camino Pilgrimage towns. No town every looked this perfect in the old days. Still it is a joy to see such a stylish and well constructed “town”. From this ridge top village the trail oscillates up and down as it follows the ridge for the next 4 or so miles, hitting small village after small village (by small, I mean one or two buildings, one of which is a cafe). Then the way starts down for about 6 miles until the town of Triacastela is reached in the river bottom below.
We reached Triacastela about 3:30pm, quite tired with the long downhill. Sally had developed what appeared to be shin splints earlier in the day. We used KT tape as instructed in their YouTube video and it worked GREAT. Even with all that descending her shin splints did not advance.
We made a trip to the grocery store and bought dinner, breakfast and lunch supplies. Our albergue had a complete kitchen, so we made pasta and vegetable soup from canned vegetables because fresh vegetables were not available. At the grocery store we ran into Dana and John. They looked so clean and well dressed! They brought big suitcases with many changes of clothes that they have shipped from hotel to hotel, so they are not living the spartan lifestyle while hiking the “way”.
The kitchen was downstairs. We had it to ourselves. Learning from the last time we cooked dinner, I cut the portion by a factor of 4, noodles, can of mushrooms, can of mixed vegetables and a chicken bullion cube. Delicious, with yogurt for desert.
We had washed our clothes in the sink earlier, hanging them in the sun to dry. We picked them up after dinner, then retired to our shared room to write and rest. There were 4 bunk beds in the room, but the other 6 people were not there. We had not seen them all day. About 9:00pm they came in. A group of 6 Spaniards traveling together, it was their last night. They were taking a taxi to Leon in the morning, then heading home.
An amazing day. Much of the trail was up on the ridge top, giving great territorial views. Many stops along the way, greeting new and old friends along the way.
Sunrise on the climb to O’cebieno
Today we passed from the Lyon& Catilla “state” to Galicia. Galicia has a language that is a mix of Portuguese and Spanish with a Celtic influence. They are very independent oriented.
Two pilgrims on the trail
One of the statues in O’Cebrieno
A recreation of houses used in this area
O’Cebrieno is the home to the priest that revitalized the Camino in the 70’s. Less than 100 people a year back then to over 400,000 now.
The “way”
Midday stop along the way
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