Stage 27: Cacabelos to La Portela, 25 kms, 5 Hrs, 8-17C, rain

Walkin' the Highway Blues

Woke at 6:30 to pounding rain...stayed hunkered down in my warm bed until 7, but then it was time to move on. Pulled on all the wet gear and gaiters that hadn't been used for a while and went in search of breakfast before departing into the ever increasing rain. The thing of it is, a little rain never hurt anyone...it's just the getting out into it that causes the pain. Once there, however, it's just like any other day on the Camino...one foot in front f the other and enjoy what ever the day brings...and we did. We stated off into some beautiful vine covered hills along the side of a highway...as a matter of record, we were rarely off the highway all day. Very happy to have brought a small flashing cycling light that I tied to my poncho and I also had my head lamp on where the highway was windy and narrow.

We walked through Villafranca and stopped for a hot chocolate chocolatte and left a few puddles on the patient bar keep's floor. You can see our gear on the floor by the bar...good views of the city from here, and definitely on our list as a place to tour through another time.

Time waits for few of us, so we geared up and stepped back out into the rain...did I mention Annemarie was wearing sandals with gaiters all day? No pain killers, no pain either...nice. Much of the remaining walk was along a narrow highway, through a gorge along side a large stream. We had an interesting discussion as we went along about whether we were walking beside a highway or a stream.  So many walking kilometers and its quite funny to watch where the daily conversation goes to! We decided that the stream won out, so we just ignored the road. 

We were able to find a place to stop in a lovely little village called Trabadelo located on a side road and operated by a Dutch couple. I surprised her when I thanked her for lunch in fairly passable Dutch (thanks Netherlands family for the lessons) and we enjoyed the wildlife on our way out of town...all wisely staying up out of the rain, unlike the less brilliant peregrinos.

Believe it or not this is a very old slate roof...the moss reminded me of home.

Home sweet home tonight is a small no star hotel in a truck stop, but the owners are very friendly and dinner should be good. They gave us newspaper to dry out our shoes, very kind of them. 

Met a young lady from Boston here who reminded us so much of Moira...they could easily be sisters...I almost called her Moira and will have to watch myself at dinner! More wildlife (you can see we are up in the mountains).

Tomorrow we climb up to O Cebreiro, about a 2,500' climb. It's very steep, but after walking a month it should be manageable as long as its not raining too hard. Unfortunately the forecast is not in our favor, but we are excited to go up. We will stay at the top of the mountain overnight and then walk through the pass and hike down into Galicia the next day. Should be a great couple of days! Annemarie has just returned to get her camera...for her that must mean its good!