Saturday, April 24, 2010

Day 29 Villafranca del Bierzo - O'Cebreiro (April 16)

We had a good sleep last night. Unfortunately, we did not get treated to a Quemada last night. Breakfast was offered at the Ave Fenix for 3 euros. We also decided to pay the proprietor 4 euros to haul our bags up the mountain for us. It's 30 km/18 miles and I just don't think we can make it all the way up carrying our packs. It was raining when we left so we wore our portable saunas, aka Altus ponchos. They keep us very dry but they don't breathe well. We saw beautiful views today. Heather covered hills. We took the road route because of the weather and much of it was along running river so it kind of drowned out the highway noise. Around 1030 the rain stopped and the sun came out. We passed a lot of cow and sheep pastures today. Happy cows, not like most of the cows we had previously seen in too small corralled areas. We stopped at just about every village on the way for refreshment. We're going to stay in the Casa Carolo tonight. It's the same place our packs will be dropped. The sunshine didn't last long. If it hadn't started raining today it would have been a great walk. When we were on the last part of the trip I felt like it could have been a scene from an old silent movie. The wind was blowing our ponchos, the rain was coming at us from all directions, a and we're on this narrow path winding it's way up the mountain. Well it was a long 8 hour day. And though we had asked for a full size bed and bathtub, we got neither for 48 euros. Once we got settled in we sat in the bar and watched a couple of old guys playing drums, guitar and accordion. There are a lot of tourists here. There weren' t too many on the trail today. It is such a nice feeling not to see anyone in front or behind.

1 comment:

  1. Too bad you had rain going up today - O'Cebreiro was one of my favorite places, and even though the path up was strenuous, the views made up for it. Hope the weather will clear for you.
    Buen Camino!
    Eva

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