It rained hard last night. I woke up at 2:00am and heard it pounding on the roof and swirling down the gutters. It was so nice to be curled up on a cozy bed in a cozy room on the ridge and listen to the weather outside. I checked the forecast again and saw it would stop about 5, a reassuring thought. I dozed off again.
We woke about 6:00am. I poked my head behind the curtains and peered out ar a near cloudless morning sky. The walk today would be fun. We had gained the ridge yesterday, today we would run the ridge for about 7 or 8 miles, then descend over 2000’ in elevation over five miles to the town of Triacastela.
Becky was having a coffee in a cafe as we left. We followed the trail that parallels the highway. Where the highway is flat, the trail oscillates like a sine curve going up and down like the guy that sighted it in had a broken abney. I moved ahead and put my earphones in to listen to more Cryptonomicon. Sally found a retired doctor from Brazil that practices family medicine in Texas for fourth years and talked with him for quite a few miles. Becky soon caught up with us and her and Sally walked together until we climbed a very steep hill that tops out at the highway and a cafe strategically placed right at the top of the hill. Here Becky and I walked out on the flat area above the trail to enjoy the view back while Sally finished the climb. Nico arrived shortly and we all sat down, along with John and Fran of Australia. Sally had a gigantic ally thick piece of tortilla de patata and a Coke.
At this point all the climbing of the day was over. The trail was level or very slightly down for a couple miles until the “town” of Fonfría. At this point it began a 5 mile 2000’ descent. We stopped at an albergue and had a man at the desk order a taxi for Sally. We had tried to get Becky to take a taxi too due to the pain of her shin splints and the stress downhill walking can cause on them, but she was determined to walk every inch of the trail and said no. Sally sat at the albergue to wait the 15 minutes for the taxi. Becky advised me to go ahead as she would be very slow and off we went. I put my book back in and released the brakes and let gravity propel me down the hill. I stopped once at about mile three for a quick soda at a hillside albergue and restaurant, then continued down to Triacastela.
Sally was already in our room. I called her when I arrived in front of this four story hotel looking building and she told me we were in room 111.
There was a washing machine available so I immediately stripped and grabbed every stitch of clothing I had except my gym shorts and salmon colored shirt and some of Sally’s cloths and ran down stairs to the machine. €5 and 28 minutes later I had sparkling clean clothes. Our floor had a huge patio like deck with clothes drying racks. On these everything was hung to dry. I showered and waited for Becky to arrive. Sally and I walked to the grocery store only to find them closed due to siesta.
When Becky arrived we walked to the store and got food for dinner then returned and had dry chicken soup mix and curly noodles with carrots and red peppers for dinner. It was good.
Nicki had texted us that her and Tom were in O Cebreiro for the night, but wanted to taxi to Triacastela and have everyone meet at a restaurant, a grand gathering of the crowd. They set a time of 6:00. Susan taxied in from Sarria. Nicki, Tom and Soma from O Cebreiro and John, Fran and The Georgia Boys walked in from their albergues in town.
We had a wonderful time. We had eaten dinner before hand as we already had purchased the food, but we went for drinks and dessert. We got up to leave about 8:30 with hugs all around, certain that might be the last time we would see some of them. We sought out the waiter to arrange to pay our bill. He informed us that Tom was picking up the whole tab for everyone! His generosity and inclusiveness are without equal.
We returned to our room, prepared for tomorrow and I was asleep within minutes. Another amazing day.
Leaving O Cebreiro. The municipal albergue is in the upper left of the photo.
The trail along the ridge. The highway visible just below.
One of the churches that grace each town along the way.
Looking back at O Cebreiro on the distant ridge
Mailing a post card to Robby, Junie, Izzy and Sammy
An albergue/restaurant halfway down the hill
I passed many farms on the trail. The buildings are very old and más of rock, but there are modern tractors inside.
Nicki, Jeff, Susan, Tom, Doug, me, Sally, Soma, John, Fran and Becky at the dinner Nicki and Tom organized.
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