Day 29 - O'Cebreiro to Triacastela

 

Predictions of early rain were cancelled.

Today was pretty perfect. Temperatures of eight or nine degrees with rain were predicted for the early part of the day.

The view from our window.

I threw open the shutters at 6.30am to find a still, calm day, with distant clouds the only indication that there might be rain about. By soon after 7am we were having breakfast, where we met Tammy and Patrick from Iowa, with whom we'll have dinner tonight.

We climbed to a high point on the trail out of O'Cebreira.

We set off on the higher alternative route, pausing along the way at the pilgrim albergue to post a few postcards back to New Zealand.

The track was very scenic with a very nice surface, taking us through a forested area until we rejoined the main trail a couple of kilometres further on. 

The rain wasn't showing any sign of arriving, but there were some interesting clouds rolling over the hills in the distance. We weren't seeing many other pilgrims, but we planned a toilet and coffee stop at about 9am at Hospital de la Condesa. To our surprise, there was a mountain of packs resting outside. The tables outside were overflowing with people, so we went inside. It was like the black hole of Calcutta - as dark as can be and with steep and dangerous steps to descend. Inside, it was no better - not an empty table and the staff obviously weren't keeping up, as the bar was thick with unwashed coffee cups. We decided to attend to priorities, use the toilets and move on.

For the first 10 kilometres or so today we maintained about the same altitude as our starting point at just over 1300m, but it wasn't all easy going. The short descents were balanced by some quite brutal short, sharp climbs, but it was all very pleasant and very scenic.

After a particularly nasty little climb we came out of the trees to the village of Santa Maria de Poio, where there was a nice-looking bar - crowded, but not as much as the previous stop. We got some coffee and chatted to Albert from Los Angeles. Albert - remember your promise to contribute some music to our next blog. The coffee was pretty weaselly - it wouldn't put much hair on my manly chest.

We set off again, past the high point of Alto de Poio, with its pilgrim statue, taking the opportunity to slip past a large group of talkative pilgrims - the kind we don't like to be stuck behind.

Tourist traffic past the bar at Biduedo.

We weren't quite done with our day's caffeine ingestion, so we stopped at about 11.15am at Biduedo after about 14km. The man behind the bar seemed quite gruff, but after making our coffees insisted on carrying them out. Then he returned with our tortilla - a very nice one which he'd heated and served with very slightly toasted bread. We're both enjoying the bread in Galicia, not so white and without the razor-sharp crusts. The coffee gave my chest-hair a growth spurt, so we were well fortified.

From this point we began our descent, past a lovely small church and down narrow lanes - all through farmyards and with the healthy pong of farm animals.

The clouds were gathering as the steepness of our descent intensified.

My mate with the fragile knees was forced to create more shallow angles across some of the steeper slopes. You'll note that with this photo, taken at 12.16pm, we'd changed into raincoats as the forecast rain became a reality. We were quite pleased, up until now we hadn't had a single drop of rain during our Camino walk.

For a while we were in real rain, but as we closed in on our destination it eased off.

We continued on through farm back yards and narrow country lanes, wandering in to Triacastela soon after 1pm. Our hotel is great - right at the far end of town, ready for a fast getaway in the morning, although there's no need to rush as we have another short day. After the normal routine of showers and washing of clothes, we wandered off to a supermarket for water, beer and other essentials. We're meeting up with Patrick and Tammy later tonight.

In the meantime, Tammy is to blame for placing this earworm in my brain with her loose talk about Iowa. By the way, we took a look at the modern version of The Music Man, starring Matthew Broderick. Sorry Matthew, but I prefer the harder, smoother talking con-man Robert Preston in the original version. So thanks Tammy, from Iowa: https://youtu.be/y7lFbUVS9WM

Here's the Relive video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vdORMVxgXrv

Here's today's photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/gG7VWEFrUwFSVHfQ7

PS: At 5.30pm the promised thunder arrived. Three years ago I was treated to a huge storm of thunder and lightning from 3pm to 10pm, so I'd have been disappointed if we hadn't had some tonight.

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Stop press: A quick contribution to the music archive with compliments of Cathie's sister Amy: https://youtu.be/_jkccFwd7L8