Camino : Cacabelos to O Cebreiro

Today’s goal was a 37 km walk with about 5000 feet climb so it was surely not a trivial one. The temperatures were getting higher and mornings were in the high 40°F. No rain was predicted for the next several days.

I got a 6 AM start while it was pretty dark, but quite peaceful and the headlamp was enough to illuminate the path. Passing by the ‘Santuario de nuestra señora de las Angustias’, I took a picture and proceeded.

The dawn was again quite amazing with the slow illumination of the sky.

The vineyards and the distant mountains, looked somewhat similar to the Sonoma and Napa areas in California.

Villafranca del Bitexco was the next big town I was aiming for to take the first coffee break. It was peeking through the woods.

In a few minutes, I was in the town.

The palace of the marquis of Villafranca looked grand.

I found a restaurant with good breakfast and took a longer than usual break. I went further over the bridge on river Burbia.

About 10km ahead was the town of Tranbadelo. It was good to see 179km left for finishing up.

Walking along, I proceeded on the path and saw two ladies from Mexico. They had just started their hike and were doing the last 200 km up to Santiago de Compostela. I was surprised at their perfect English and discovered that they had worked and studied in New York, Texas and France.

Having walked for two hours since breakfast, I stopped at the restaurant with many pilgrims.

The waitress was kind to give me two huge, crunchy end pieces of delicious bread.

I saw seven month old Eliza being pushed on a stroller by her mom Nina, they were from Western Germany. Nina was walking for the past four weeks pushing the stroller.

Vega de Varcarce was the town 7km away from Trabadelo and it had an area with hundreds of solar panels the sun was quite intense here and I missed the cooler temperatures from just a few days ago.

The path went next to the river and was wooded so I got shielded from direct sunlight.

The very high bridge of the highway looked pretty neat.

It was time to get a coffee next to a very beautiful setting.

The steep and rocky path provided a challenge but at least there was plenty of shade.

I passed Las Herreras and found a restaurant at La Faba. There were many pilgrims relaxing there from Britain, Australia, US, Netherlands and Germany. The waitress got me a freshly squeezed orange juice that hit the spot.

The last 5km were steep and while I was distracted talking on the phone, I was glad to notice the snake right in front of me. I froze. I continued when it slithered away.

By now, I was officially in Galicia.

After a steep climb, I was within a few minutes of the destination and I saw an interesting pilgrim statue.

O Cebreiro, today’s destination, had good looking stone buildings.

The municipal albergue was in a modern building.

The view from the hostel was quite breathtaking.

The 3 restaurants in the vicinity were busy and had a good selection of drinks.

The announcement outside indicating the availability of Pulpo was the main determining factor for me to choose the place.

The octopus- Pulpo was delicious and it was a great dinner to end the day on a high note.