Me at Cruz de Ferro

Onto Triacastela

It seems the closer we get to Santiago the more relaxed we get. Apart from some Swiss pilgrims who were travelling in a group and had spoken to some German pilgrims earlier in the week, explaining that the reason they always got to the albergue before anyone else was that they were from Switzerland and therefore better at walking through the mountains. They begun their moving about at 5:30am and started their packing and disturbing everyone else. The rest of us got up at about 8am and went upstairs after packing, we were enjoying a cup of coffee together and went outside to see a green vw minibus stop and pick up one of the Swiss pilgrims, who quickly put her's and another's rucksack into the back and they were both driven off up the mountain towards O'Cebriero.  The walk up the mountain was steep and spectacular; I could hear the cowbells in the valley below. After a quick look around the village, and a visit to the church, it was time for breakfast of bacon and eggs, but they hardly filled the hole the short but exhausting climb had created, so I picked up a kit kat to eat as I walked. The walk down was interrupted with a steep climb up almost to the same altitude as O'Cebriero. At 6:15 and over eight and a half hours from setting off this morning I'm in the small town of Triacastela, with my washing in a machine and me down the road having a wine at a local bar and deciding what to eat.

Life is good

Crossing over

A Starbuck on every corner.

I left Villafranca del bierzo just after 8am this morning through the little streets with the smell of wood fires and the sound of the fast flowing river that runs through the valley. The daily joke is see you at the next Starbucks for coffee, which is always a small bar in a small village. The sun was up and so was the moon, as it has been for the last two weeks or so, except that now the moon is still up till mid afternoon directly in front of me with the sun on my back as I head westward to Santiago. I had intended to get to O'Cebriero today, which is the highest point on the Camino. It was here that a priest, who when a villager made his way into this village to attend church during a storm, thought to himself why has this man come all this way just to get some bread and wine and at moment the bread and wine turned to flesh and blood. The chalice is still kept in the church.

The history of the Camino never ceases to amaze me on my walk today. I passed a village called Hospital named so, after the English hospital mentioned in documents dating back to the 12 century, which was used by Henry II during his pilgrimage to Santiago. I have stopped for the day at La Faba, just 4 kilometers from O'Cebriero, with still another steep climb ahead and a long and steep descent just like the one that caused my ankle to swell up. Good news tomorrow I cross over into Galicia.

Life is so good

The path I follow.

Todays path !

Looked over my shoulder & saw this.

Villafranca del Bierzo

Staying here

Rise & Shine !

I was awoken at about 5 am by the early risers, they forget that they're in bunk beds and as they sit up you can hear the thud of their heads hitting the bunk above them closely followed by a curse in their own tongue, sometimes you can pick out the odd silhouette of someone frantically rubbing their head. Then it's on with their head torches so that they can pack their rucksacks without turning on the dormitory light. I got up at about 7am washed packed and went upstairs to find all the early risers sitting about waiting for daylight. Ponferrada is another pilgrim safe haven with its Templar castle. The streets still have ancient house that have been given the 21century makeover, graffiti, almost every building has been given this treatment apart from the castle. I made my way through the city and out into the countryside with it's rolling vineyards. I stopped in a small town called Cacabelos for paella and a coke. The road to villfranca del bierzos turned right and across the rolling vineyards along a dusty track. Every now and then a car or tractor would pass by kicking up a dust cloud covering In dust, after about the fifth time this happened it dawned on me that I had hung some washing on my backpack to dry as I walked. Minty wasn't going to happy. Dusty but not happy. The route through the vineyards added an extra 2 km to the walk I am now in  Villafranca del Bierzo were me and two other pilgrims decided to share the costs of a three bed hotel room in a small village hotel. I am about to have a bath and sleep in a bed without having to get out my sleeping bag for the first time since leaving home. Then it's food and a drink or two with my pilgrim friends. I did promise them that I would get up at five go make some rustling noises and shine my torch in their faces , so that they didn't miss the albergue morning madness. It wasn't well accepted. Any way my bath is calling.

Life is good.    Adios