Trabadello — O’Cebreiro — Triacastella — Sarria

The last three days have involved walking over the last major mountain range before Santiago. 

Sometimes there were so many chestnuts on the ground they made a carpet for us to walk on.

We waited for these cows to get off the road.

We admired each others’ sticks.

Ted fell in love with this restaurant and the view.

The ascent to O’Cebreiro was spetacular with bright sunshine illuminating green pastures, small towns off in the distance, going higher and higher and further and further into the mountains. It was essentially 12 miles of uphill, not that difficult for us at this point in our fitness training. O’Cebreiro is at the top of the mountain, a strange place for a little town, but a welcome sight for us. The night was very cold and we woke the next morning to frost on the ground and frozen puddles.

Galicean thatched roof

Having a beer with Robert, whom we bumped into again in O’Cebreiro, much to our delight.

Frost in the morning

Hiking down the other side of the mountain range was equally beautiful, rivaling the beauty of the hike out of St. Jean Pied de Port at the very start of our Camino. This side of the mountain range is made of green pastures blocked off with stone walls and classic ancient villages on the side of the mountain. At one point an elderly lady offered us pancakes and then collected a donation from us.

Today we continued through very picturesque landscape, Ted describing it as out of The Hobbit. The sunshine was golden. In one little village there was  a woman knitting in the sunshine, Rapunzal-like, looking out here second story window, and below were fruits and vegetables available for a donation. We took some bananas. A little later we encountered a couple hiking the Camino with their 18 month child. The baby was playing with a stick on the edge of an idyllic stream. We could see Sarria below us from a long way off.

Rapunzel knitting in the window

ancient path

young couple hiking the Camino with their 18 month old son

We are between five and seven days away from Santiago at this time with mixed feelings about our walk soon coming to an end. We have been slowing down our hike to extend our time on the Camino, and as always people hike by us and leave us behind. We definitely are stopping to smell the roses. There are so many interesting things to see. Karen’s photography interest reminds me to stop and look at what’s around us.

For the last several weeks we have reached a working compromise with our feet. I stretch my feet at night and in the morning before I walk, and I take an antiinflammatory half way through the day. We take a magnesium supplement to help our muscles. My feet take a while to limber up in the morning and after a break, but for the most part they feel good enough that I don’t need to think of them much. If I get a sudden pain, I take it easy for a bit, so the pain can work itself out. It amazes me how much our feet can recover with a night’s rest.