The Occasionally-Examined Life

Triacastela to Sarria – 18 Kms, 26,307 steps

Today’s walk started with a steep climb out of the valley, resulting in some beautiful views of the area ahead.

As we left town, the Camino divided: left to Samos and 25 Kms to Sarria, or right to San Xil and 18 Kms to Sarria. Despite the guidebook’s hyping of the “more scenic” Samos route, I turned right and it was plenty scenic for me.

The weather was cool and, if not for the extensive descents, the walk would have been perfect. However, as we descended that enchanting distant mist became the cool, damp fog that surrounded us. Rain gear wasn’t called for, but I kept my windbreaker on far longer than in recent days.

We passed through several small towns, which were pretty quiet for a Saturday morning. Not many cafes were open, despite the pilgrim traffic.

After four and a half hours of walking, with a 30-minute break, I arrived in Sarria.

The Camino path winds through town, goes up a hill, and then goes up this 62-step beauty:

At the top is another steeply inclined street to climb to get to the albergues and hostals. What a way to end a day of walking, with a figurative kick in the teeth. Sheesh.

I’m in the very nice Aqua Rooms Sarria hostal, and there’s no nautical or swimming pool theme, so the name’s a mystery.

As mentioned earlier, Sarria is 110 Kms from Santiago, the minimum distance required for a pilgrim to receive a Compostela, the sacred document of achievement. So it’s here that tour groups and others looking to do the minimum join the Camino. The Brierley guidebook even has a paragraph asking pilgrims who started much further away to look kindly on these short-distance walkers.

I mentioned earlier that some restaurants generously give you a full bottle of wine when you order the Menu del Dia. Not so fast! I’ve just noticed these are often bottles of something called “Light” wine, which clock in at only 11% alcohol content. Interesting.

Tomorrow’s walk is a long 22 Kms to Portomarin, with a 200-meter climb in the middle. The weather is forecast to continue to be nice. Cheers.

O Cebreiro to Triacastela – 17 Kms, 31,197 steps

Today’s walk promised to be “mostly downhill” and much of it was on nice wooded paths with friendly walking surfaces. However, it was not without its ascents and my legs, still tired from yesterday, were sluggish by the end of today. There were also long descents that punished the toes and knees.

I’m filling in a lot of my memories from 2019, places I remembered but not where they were exactly. At my halfway point cafe, a huge tour bus pulled up and disgorged 40 German tourists, who were then given the option of getting back on the bus or walking some of the way on the Camino. About half of them chose to walk, further clogging up The Way in an already very busy season.

That kind of thinking won’t serve me well starting tomorrow, when I arrive in Sarria. It’s the town just outside the 110 Km requirement for receiving an official Compostela (Camino completion document) in Santiago and is where a lot of short-distance walkers and tour groups join in.

The weather continues to be glorious and the Fall colors are appearing. There’s a low chance of rain a few days next week but I hope that will disappear.

Earlier I saw the German lady with her dog Alma (not Greta, as previously reported) and she was about to take a taxi to the next town because there was no place here that would take a dog overnight. She’s also reluctantly flying back to Germany from Santiago; a first for the dog and requiring the purchase of a big “air kennel” for her. It turns out that buses and trains in Spain do not accept dogs as passengers. Seems like a key piece of pre-trip research missed.

A lot of my 21 Kms today was along lovely shaded lanes, perfect for walking except for the relentless downhill slope that was killing my toes and knees. I have to use my hiking poles to take some of the load, and take really small steps, which slows down progress.

My room tonight at the Pension Complexo Xacobeo costs two Euros more than last night’s room and is twice as large, with first-class fixtures and amenities. I shall sleep well tonight and recover a bit, I hope, from my journey to and from O Cebreiro.

Sometimes when the Camino goes through a small town, we’re walking on roads used by farm animals. This means that the pavement is often splattered with stuff you don’t want to step in and you have to be vigilant while walking. The aroma is pretty bad, too.

Tomorrow is the start of my last week on the Camino, just seven days to go. As we get closer to Santiago, as I remember it, we’ll all anticipate the finale, and all loads will become lighter. Cheers.

Trabadelo to O Cebreiro – 17 Kms, 27,146 steps

Wow! Today was hard. The flatish part of the morning walk went by quickly but the rest was really difficult. The distance is deceptive, climbing 900 meters added about 1-1/2 hours to my walk. I was all right aerobically but my legs are so very tired.

I got a pre-dawn start and walked pretty quickly through three small towns. After an hour, I had a snack in Ruitelan. The weather was great and I was walking mostly on paved roads or shoulders. The path wound around beneath some of Spain’s excellent “flyover” motorways.

I walked a little bit with the German woman walking with her Dalmatian. She seems pretty responsible and has good command of the dog, Alma, who appears to be enjoying herself.

Finally, I got to the hard part of the path, which left the road to descend to cross a stream, then went up. And up. And up!

The path surface is a mix of rocks and dirt, but so steep that use of my hiking poles was mandatory.

Horses are available for rent in one town so that pilgrims can ride up this trail to O Cebreiro. The horses apparently know the way and it’s all sort of automatic. The owner collects them at the top. Unfortunately, the horses crap all over the trail. So, in addition to the steep grade, the clouds of gnats and flies, and the uncertain footing, walking pilgrims have to dodge large, fresh deposits of horse shit. Delightful.

I came out of the woods and soon reached the little town of Laguna and, mistaking its outskirts for O Cebreiro, set myself up for bitter disappointment when I found I had another 30 minutes or so to walk.

Interestingly, a rancher on horseback came along behind these cows and admonished me not to take their picture because it would upset them. Of course, I already had and they didn’t seem to notice.

I did eventually make it O Cebreiro and, though I was sweaty and tired, I was in so much better condition than when I arrived in rain and fog in 2019. After checking into my lodging and showering, I went out for lunch: a bowl of the Galician specialty, Caldo Gallego, a tasty soup of beans, potatoes, and turnip greens. I have officially entered the region of Galicia.

Don Elias Sampedro was the parish priest who, in the 1980s, revived a moribund Camino by traveling the country and painting the yellow directional arrows that guide pilgrims to this day and are now a symbol of the Camino. He’s buried here and his grave has become something of a shrine:

Tomorrow’s walk to Tricastela is a bit longer, 21 Kms, but it’s almost all downhill. Tomorrow will also mark one week until I reach Santiago.

Cacabelos to Trabadelo – 20 Kms, 24,350 steps

My room last night was not good. The establishment was not staffed (check-in was elsewhere) and the yanked-out common area fixtures and furniture gave it the vibe of a ghost town. Except for the loud construction noises right above me (drilling, hammering, etc.) that went on through the afternoon until about 7:00. Add to that burnt out lights, a view across the alley to a disgusting rooftop patio littered with trash and mangey dogs, a strong cigarette smell (pehaps the workmen?), and a sewer aroma in the bathroom. Definitely NOT recommending this place (Hostal Santa Maria).

I calculated my walk today as 20 Kms but it sure went by quickly and my step count seems low. A happy accident, perhaps, but it only took me 4 hours, including a 30-minute break, to get here. A lot of the way today was along roads and roadside paths and the ascents and descents were mild.

I took the old “original” Camino route at one point today, instead of the newer “recommended” route which is 2 Kms longer, and I remembered it quite accurately fom 2019.

At my halfway point break in Villafranca del Bierzo, I shared a table with two 20-somethings from Italy who were bicycling the Camino. We had a very enjoyable conversation, even discussing their thoughts on the rise of fascism in Europe and the recent far-right Italian election results (they weren’t happy about it). They spoke English and Spanish quite well, so we didn’t have to rely on my tourist Italian.

For most of the second half of my walk today, I was on a paved area separated from the highway by a Jersey wall (see above). Asphalt is not the greatest surface but it sure beats rocks, and the highway ascent angle was gradual and made for easy walking.

When I finally arrived in Trabadelo, the town mayor came out to greet me, just as he did in 2019. Fine fellow!

Speaking of dogs, I met a woman yesterday from Germany who was walking the Camino with her Dalmatian. We talked about her decision to bring the dog and she told me she had consulted her veterinarian about it and he had given the OK, even encouraged her. So, my feelings that bringing your dog along was irresponsible and hard on the dog were assuaged a bit.

When I got to the very nice Albergue Camino y Leyende, they asked me if I wanted lunch. Albergues usually offer a communal dinner, but a personal lunch was a new twist. After we discussed what I wanted, the cook went out to the garden and picked the vegetables for my meal! And it was really tasty (and included a copious quantity of local wine). I’m looking forward to seeing what we have for dinner.

The weather has been just perfect. Right now, it’s 75-degrees F with low humidity and a clear sky. I hung my clothes on a rooftop clothesline and they were dry in an hour.

Tomorrow brings a challenge: the climb to O Cebriero. In 2019, it was steep and raining and it was a horrible experience. I arrived at the top looking and feeling like a drowned rat. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Here’s the elevation profile:

It’s only 17 Kms but, as you can see, it’s a tough climb. I look forward to reaching the top and seeing the statue of Don Sampedro, who’s buried there. More about him tomorrow. Wish me luck. Cheers.

Ponferrada to Cacabelos – 14 Kms, 23,732 steps

After a good night’s sleep in my luxurious room, I was ready to go, and I joined the tide of departing pilgrims at 8:15. The path took us through the center of town (of course) and then through a nice riverside park, past the Museum of Energy and some interesting public art.

I passed quickly through the Ponferrada suburbs, on nice, flat paths of packed dirt and gravel. Very pleasant walking!

An hour and a half later, I arrived in Fuentes Nuevas, my halfway point and 30-minute break. Another cafe con leche topped me up.

I’ve seen, and mentioned previously, some of the interesting modes of Camino transport I’ve seen. For example, the guy with the unicycle. Today I saw a handicapped guy in a wheelchair created from a Segway! Remember the Segway? The two-wheeled, self balancing, scooter-like device, that was going to replace walking? Well, this guy was in one fitted out as a wheelchair. It looked so weird because there were no front wheels. The guy just zoomed along in it. I wish I’d taken a picture.

Let’s talk about storks for a moment. They build big, unsightly nests on tall objects. Almost always on church bell towers here:

However, the town of Camponaraya did a smart thing to protect their churches: they gave the storks another option:

The days and kilometers are going by. Only ten more days until my Camino is over.

I’m not sure how I feel at the moment. I’m kind of ready to see my Camino end. Spending a week on the couch sounds pretty good. But, who knows what the next week will bring.

Tomorrow is a long 20 Kms into a narrow valley, with some gentle climbs. It’s a set up for Thursday’s killer climb into the mountains. Cheers.

El Acebo to Ponferrada – 17 Kms, 23,65 steps

No taxis were involved today, but the first half of my day involved more of the incredibly difficult, toe-banging descents of yesterday. I shouted out “Hallelujah” when it was finally over.

I remember this stretch of the Camino from 2019 and not fondly. There were a lot more level areas and areas of packed dirt today than yesterday, but the concentration required to pick my way down the steep descents was the same.

I slept really well las night, due to fatigue from yesterday and a good mattress, in a hotel that listed numerous amenities online: a swimming pool, a steam room, a massage service. Well, yes, and no. The hotel was at one end of the village and, at the other end and half a kilometer away down a pretty good hill, was a brand new albergue owned by the same company. The pool, steam room, etc. were all down there, and hotel guests were welcome to go use them. Right. No one wants to walk down there and then walk back. How do you say “bait and switch” in Spanish?

I’m meeting more Camino veterans this time, people who have walked it multiple times, like me. For example, I met a nurse from Toronto the other night who was on her fourth Camino. She said, “some people go to their beach house every summer, I go on the Camino”. Doesn’t seem quite the same to me, but okay if it works for her. Sadly, I think this increased frequency of vets relates to the large number of Camino know-it-alls I’ve encountered. I see these folks pontificating and remind myself again not to be one of them.

The term Buen Camino (have a good [walk on the] way) is the universal pilgrim greeting, regardless of your nationality. It’s the polite thing to say when you pass another pilgrim or get passed. As an effort at good PR, I make a point of saying hello to every single local person out for a stroll that I encounter, and 99% of them have wished me a buen camino in return.

I finally made it to Ponferrada, and it only took me four hours. That was pretty good considering my snail’s pace down the descents and a 25-minute halfway point break in Molinaseca. Some of the stuff I’m remembering from 2019 as hard or long is turning out to be easier and shorter, and that’s a nice result.

I’m in a very nice hostal, with a great private room. My bathroom is huge and the shower has nozzles at all sorts of heights. In addition, there’s a great laundry room in the basement. Yes, I stayed here in 2019 and it was too good not to come back.

Tomorrow, I have a relatively short day of 14 Kms, and a fairly flat route to Cacabelos. That will let my feet and legs rest and recover. The weather continues to be what we’d call Indian Summer back in Virginia: clear and cool in the morning, sunny and 70 by midday. Only 11 more days to go.

Rabanal del Camino to El Acebo – 17 Kms, 24,247 steps

I’m not having a good Camino day. My walk today took me over the highest point in the whole Camino and down some really awful descents. In the middle of one descent from Hell, I was cursing the idiots who administer this segment of the path and think it’s acceptable. It’s not, and I wonder how many foot and knee injuries happen here as a result. Shame on them!

The day started cool and sunny, and warmed up quickly; I was in shirt sleeves within an hour. That was good because I had a lot of climbing to do. Here’s today’s height profile:

After the initial climb to Foncebadon, I took this photo back over the valley behind me:

The Cruz de Ferro is where pilgrims leave a stone they bring from home, representing something they want to remember, or to forget.

My halfway point break was at a nice food truck, featuring homemade coffee cake and Irish/Galacian music. Cows across the road contributed to the ambiance.

Then came the descents from Hell. Loose rocks and steep descents that demanded I pay 100% attention to where my boots and hiking pole tips were going, for 35 minutes. Forget the scenery, forget taking photos, just look down and try to avoid stumbling and falling! Really bad stuff. I can’t imagine anyone negotiating this in the rain.

And then, near El Acebo two idiots on bicycles come down the path, barely in control, nearly hitting me. Twenty yards on, they had to dismount and walk their bikes. What were they thinking!? They should have followed the road, which is the bicycle route.

I’m safely in a nice hostel now, washed and fed. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same! Taxi, anyone?

Astorga to Rabanal del Camino – 21 Kms, 27,347 steps

I said farewell to Astorga at 8:00 AM and joined several others heading down the Camino to the city limits. Sunrise occurred about 20 minutes later. It was a chilly 44 F and I was layered up. The walking was smooth and easy, however.

Before long, I had passed through several small towns and arrived at my halfway point, Santa Catalina de Somoza, and I stopped for breakfast at a cafe I recognized from 2019. How I managed 10 Kms without coffee (there was nothing open in Astorga) is a mystery.

The guidebook says that Santa Catalina de Somoza is the only town on the Camino named for a woman! She’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and apparently the “de Somoza” part means “of the foothills”. At any rate, I’m glad to have spent a nice 30 minutes there, getting my caffeine fix and shedding layers to better match the warming weather.

There are a lot of pilgrims out on the Camino now, more than I remember seeing at this point in 2019. Sometimes it seems crowded, other times it’s nice to be able to see where others are going up ahead when the path zigs and zags. I wonder what this means it will be like when I get to Sarria, where the short-distance folks traditionally join in and swell the pilgrim headcount.

My next stop was the town of El Ganso, whose name makes me think of “Gonzo”, Hunter S. Thompson’s wacky type of journalism. The town is the home of the famous Cowboy Cafe, which I think might please Thompson:

It’s more hype than substance, though. For example, there’s Willie Nelson on the sound sysem, but no Lone Star in the taps. Of course, if you’re going to have Cowboy Cafe, then you need:

Yes, an albergue that houses you in teepees. I think Hollywood needs to look into filming a new series of westerns here – the community is obviously into it already.

I was in Rabanal de Camino in no time after that and I’m now checked in and unpacked at El Refugio Hosteria, a really nice hostal. In 2019, I ate a fantastic dinner here, featuring a salad with a scoop of spiced ice cream, and a main dish of beef cheeks in red wine sauce. It was absolutely the best meal of that Camino, so I’m looking forward to seeing what is on offer this evening.

Tomorrow, I’m off to El Acebo. It’s only 17 Kms but, as I recall, there are some steep sections with treacherous footing. The weather forecast is for more of the same, which is great. Cheers.

Hospital de Orbigo to Astorga – 17 Kms, 27,634 steps

My night at the albergue was not that great. Lots of noisy folks making a racket right up to lights out at 10 PM, couldn’t get my sleeping bag to behave, early wake-up call. Breakfast was served from 6 – 7 AM, then we had to be out the door by 8 AM. No lingering over coffee! And sunrise was not until 8:20, so I found myself in the dark at the edge of town, 44 F, navigating with my headlamp. The stars were pretty but I’m not really a fan of walking by lamp light.

It’s Fall and I’m experiencing typical Fall weather: crisp and cool, breezy, sunnny, and clear. As long as I put on all the layers in the morning, it’s really nice.

I walked for hours on some of the worst path surface yet: rocky and difficult and without a worn tire track to spare the feet. At about the halfway point, I pulled into what I call a “hippie rest area donativo”. A well-tanned fellow named David occupies some ruins alongside the Camino and provides food, drink, hammocks, seats, and conversation, in exchange for donations. He told me he was there “in service to God”. I was grateful for coffee at that point, but the general level of hygiene was so bad that I passed on everything else he had on offer.

I finally arrived at the point where there’s a cross commemorating a 5th century bishop, with a view of Astorga ahead. So close, yet it would be another hour before I got there. I was keeping my eye out, however, for two things I remembered from 2019:

I also re-experienced the steep climb up into Astorga when the time came. This is an old medieval town with ancient walls, built on the high ground for protection. I found my hotel without any difficulty and got settled in.

Astorga packs its 12,000 residents in tightly and offers everything a pilgrim might need. Next to its large cathedral is the Bishop’s Palace, designed by our old friend Gaudi. He sure was prolific.

Tomorrow, I have a bit longer walk, 21 Kms, to Rabanal del Camino. I’m staying in the same hostal that I stayed in last time, specifically because they served the best gourmet pilgrim meal. I’m looking forward to seeing what they have on offer this year. Only 14 more days left before Santiago.

Villadangos del Paramo to Hospital de Orbigo – 11 Kms, 19,873 steps

There’s nothing quite like waking up knowing you have a short walking day ahead of you. Unless, of course, it’s a rest day ahead of you. Today, I had just 11 Kms to walk to get to my next destination, Hospital de Orbigo, and the weather forecast said there might be rain but not unitl after 2:00, so I could take it very easy. It was chilly and there was a pretty good wind, so layers, buff, and gloves were required setting out.

I couldn’t check-in at my next albergue until noon, so I adjusted my pace to one I like to call “moseying”. The route, once out of town, was almost all senda, a track or farm road beside the N-120 highway.

For some reason, the socks I hand-washed yesterday did not dry completely overnight, so I pinned them to my backpack to air-dry as I walked along this morning. I have a pair of 5”-long safety pins for this purpose.

I quickly passed through my halfway point at San Martin and didn’t even stop for coffee. The cafe con leche and pastry I had for breakfast in Villadangos was enough to keep me going. And I knew I only had another 90 minutes to my destination for the day.

The weather quickly improved and I was soon shedding layers. This despite the fact that the distant sky looked dark gray and ominous. The path surface was pretty nice, pavement through the towns and packed sand and gravel in between.

Despite my efforts to dawdle, I arrived in Hospital de Orbigo at 11:00 AM, an hour before my albergue opened. I had coffee at a local bar and perused the headlines online. I mentioned earlier, I think, that I’m using an “eSIM” in my iPhone and the Airalo cell data service and it has been fantastic. I signed up for 50 GBs of data and have barely used 12 so far. Service has always been available, wherever I’ve been. So when the albergue WiFi sucks, I know I can still make these blog posts via cellular.

Just as I was about to present myself at my albergue, who should come walking down the street but my Australian friends Dennis and Ginny! You may remember that they detoured to a scenic route Camino branch yesterday and now here they were. We chatted a bit and they went off to have some lunch before continuing on towards Astorga. I went to the albergue to check-in.

My albergue is, well, an albergue. So my “private room” is actually a private room with two bunk beds, i.e. a room for four persons. The San Miguel albergue is famous for the wall-to-wall paintings that decorate every wall and it absolutely reeked of patchouli incense.

My private room did not come with a private bathroom this time, so I’m using the communal one. As far as I can tell, there are beds for 32 people and dividing by sex, that’s 16 men. We share one toilet and two showers. Really? One toilet for 16 people? This should be interesting, first thing in the morning.

I’m glad brought along a few John Buddy bags, though I haven’t used one yet. What are they? These are lunch bag-sized bags with a few ounces of powder in them. You urinate into them, the powder becomes a gel that absorbs all the liquid and odor, and you discard them in the trash. I was the first male pilgrim through the door today, so I was ahead of the crowd for shaving, showering, etc. Nonetheless, I think the facilities-to-pilgrim ratio is poor here.

Tomorrow, I’ve got a 17km walk into a larger city, Astorga. I’m staying in a nice hotel there, so there’ll be no need for John Buddy bags. I just had to dash outside and rescue my laundry from the clothes line and a passing shower. I hope the hotel will have actual washing machines available – handwashing is okay but I doubt it gets clothes all that clean. I’m enjoying remembering my 2019 Camino, as I remember this part of the Camino more clearly and recognize many sights. Cheers!