Saturday 7am Cacabelos
Just talked to Gwen on Skype. She was more interested in watching Shrek. She is a little girl now most definitely and there is no longer anything of a baby about her.
The dorms here only have 2 beds in a room but I have a roommate who went to bed really early and is still asleep. I am going to have to wake him soon as this is too late to not to be packing - I had expected to be almost packed by 7am.
11:30am on the hill above Villafranca del Bierzo
I have only done about 10km so far. I carried a pack for Glenda from Colorado and for Anthony from Sydney. I had a leisurely breakfast in Villafranca before doing the very steep climb up Alto Pradela. The climb is about 400m over 7km. I have done the first steep kilometre and having s rest out of site og the track. I van still here voices as people ho by.I thought this path would be very little used this late in the day. This is a voluntary hill. There is a route through the valley following the main road and close to the A4. The main road from Madrid to north west Spain passed up this very narrow glacial valley. I have a sandwich with me for lunch and there are lots of albergues in the valley so no need to hurry.
Nearly at Alto Pradela 1pm.
The climb is taking a long time. It is only 7km with 400mof climb so I should have finished by now. I think I need a rest day tomorrow as my body is getting weary from the weeks of walking. Going to Finisterre does not appeal at all today. I haven't eaten s bocadilla (Spanish sandwich) in weeks and I had forgotten how dry and uninteresting they are. I can hesr voices on the trail above me. I dropped down into a gully to get out of the wind. I called out but I don't think they heard me over the wind in the power wires.
Trabadelo 8pm
The voices I heard where Charles and Ann-Claire. We walked together for parts of the track from the summit to Trabadelo.
I stopped here rather than doing the additional 6km I had planned. I was only managing 2km an hour on the climb from Villafranca to Alto Pradela. Tomorrow I will have an easy day before tackling the 700m climb to O'Cebriero.
The last part of the walk along the hill was through a very pretty chestnut grove. On the first part of the descent you look up the valley at the ghastly scars created by cutting away the hills to make room in the narrow valley for the autopista. There is a point west of here where the cutting has become unstable resulting in a huge erosion fan running up the hill. A tunnel has been built so thst the slips don't engulf the autopista. I hope they let it keep on slipping onto the top of the tunnel so that it can form s stable slope but I suspect that there are constant earth works to take away the material as it falls from the hill . Looking at the destruction in the valley after the beautiful chestnut grove felt to me like a parable of the fall of Adam and Eve and the eviction from the garden of Eden.
Gay from Mangawhai is staying here with her friend Rita from Switzerland but now living in NZ. Gay is not coping well with the Camino. She has been very slow since day 1 and now has bad blisters. Charles carried her pack down the hill. I think he did that knowing I was tired but would have done it if he hadn't. I was very grateful to Charles for that.
I went down to the local restaurant for dinner. I thought I had ordered trout but got to small fish. I think in Europe trout seems to be generic for fresh water fish. The French call Salmon trout.
Just talked to Gwen on Skype. She was more interested in watching Shrek. She is a little girl now most definitely and there is no longer anything of a baby about her.
The dorms here only have 2 beds in a room but I have a roommate who went to bed really early and is still asleep. I am going to have to wake him soon as this is too late to not to be packing - I had expected to be almost packed by 7am.
11:30am on the hill above Villafranca del Bierzo
I have only done about 10km so far. I carried a pack for Glenda from Colorado and for Anthony from Sydney. I had a leisurely breakfast in Villafranca before doing the very steep climb up Alto Pradela. The climb is about 400m over 7km. I have done the first steep kilometre and having s rest out of site og the track. I van still here voices as people ho by.I thought this path would be very little used this late in the day. This is a voluntary hill. There is a route through the valley following the main road and close to the A4. The main road from Madrid to north west Spain passed up this very narrow glacial valley. I have a sandwich with me for lunch and there are lots of albergues in the valley so no need to hurry.
Nearly at Alto Pradela 1pm.
The climb is taking a long time. It is only 7km with 400mof climb so I should have finished by now. I think I need a rest day tomorrow as my body is getting weary from the weeks of walking. Going to Finisterre does not appeal at all today. I haven't eaten s bocadilla (Spanish sandwich) in weeks and I had forgotten how dry and uninteresting they are. I can hesr voices on the trail above me. I dropped down into a gully to get out of the wind. I called out but I don't think they heard me over the wind in the power wires.
Trabadelo 8pm
The voices I heard where Charles and Ann-Claire. We walked together for parts of the track from the summit to Trabadelo.
I stopped here rather than doing the additional 6km I had planned. I was only managing 2km an hour on the climb from Villafranca to Alto Pradela. Tomorrow I will have an easy day before tackling the 700m climb to O'Cebriero.
The last part of the walk along the hill was through a very pretty chestnut grove. On the first part of the descent you look up the valley at the ghastly scars created by cutting away the hills to make room in the narrow valley for the autopista. There is a point west of here where the cutting has become unstable resulting in a huge erosion fan running up the hill. A tunnel has been built so thst the slips don't engulf the autopista. I hope they let it keep on slipping onto the top of the tunnel so that it can form s stable slope but I suspect that there are constant earth works to take away the material as it falls from the hill . Looking at the destruction in the valley after the beautiful chestnut grove felt to me like a parable of the fall of Adam and Eve and the eviction from the garden of Eden.
Gay from Mangawhai is staying here with her friend Rita from Switzerland but now living in NZ. Gay is not coping well with the Camino. She has been very slow since day 1 and now has bad blisters. Charles carried her pack down the hill. I think he did that knowing I was tired but would have done it if he hadn't. I was very grateful to Charles for that.
I went down to the local restaurant for dinner. I thought I had ordered trout but got to small fish. I think in Europe trout seems to be generic for fresh water fish. The French call Salmon trout.
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