O'Cebreiro is pretty high. The village overlooks the rolling green hills of Galicia in every direction. You'd think it would be cold in the morning, but no, it wasn't.
At 6:30am we started out in the dark. Hiking up and down energetically in the dark and intense fog. Or was it just cloud? As the sun came up it became apparent that we were between cloud layers. Something I had only experienced in the airplane before. It was warm enough to hike in t-shirt and no gloves and in no time at all we passed over the highest linn in the Camino... 1300+ meters.
20km later the trail branched at Triacastela, with one way leading to Samos - an old monastery and the other, a steeper climb but shorter route through Pintìn. We chose harder but shorter, but Marcelo went for the monastery. Man it was a beautiful walk!
The guide book didn't lie though. Each tiny Galician village supported a handful of farmers and not much else. No coffee. No accommodation. At one point we took the chance and detoured according to a random sign for an albergue. The reward was nobody was home and being chased out of town by 5 growling and snarling dogs! We had one hiking pole each to poke them away. Hahaha. It was 33km before we arrived today, with sore feet and eyes full of hope, in Pintìn.
Our hotel is tiny but clean and welcoming. A hot shower goes a long way to healing bodies that have trekked for almost 11 hours - but there is no instant cure, so the next best thing is distraction! We had dinner with two Frenchman that often cross our path. Delightful conversation, upgraded Rioja wine and homemade dinner.
Bliss.
At 6:30am we started out in the dark. Hiking up and down energetically in the dark and intense fog. Or was it just cloud? As the sun came up it became apparent that we were between cloud layers. Something I had only experienced in the airplane before. It was warm enough to hike in t-shirt and no gloves and in no time at all we passed over the highest linn in the Camino... 1300+ meters.
20km later the trail branched at Triacastela, with one way leading to Samos - an old monastery and the other, a steeper climb but shorter route through Pintìn. We chose harder but shorter, but Marcelo went for the monastery. Man it was a beautiful walk!
The guide book didn't lie though. Each tiny Galician village supported a handful of farmers and not much else. No coffee. No accommodation. At one point we took the chance and detoured according to a random sign for an albergue. The reward was nobody was home and being chased out of town by 5 growling and snarling dogs! We had one hiking pole each to poke them away. Hahaha. It was 33km before we arrived today, with sore feet and eyes full of hope, in Pintìn.
Our hotel is tiny but clean and welcoming. A hot shower goes a long way to healing bodies that have trekked for almost 11 hours - but there is no instant cure, so the next best thing is distraction! We had dinner with two Frenchman that often cross our path. Delightful conversation, upgraded Rioja wine and homemade dinner.
Bliss.
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