Las Herrerias - O'Cebreiro, 13 kms.

The Changing Sky

It would be easy to think that I spend quite some time looking at the sky. Well, I guess I do. I've long been fascinated that such a thin strip of atmosphere can change so drastically with such a range of colour. I can watch the sky and particularly the cloud patterns endlessly, and I found myself doing so last evening. There are two low pressure systems presently influencing our local skies. One very large one sitting just off our north coast and a very large low pressure cell travelling northward along the Pacific Coast from America. I was reading that this is quite unusual for this time of year. Whatever is happening, the cloud patterns have certainly caught my eye.



Our walk this morning was pretty routine. Oh, it was as usual along beautiful trails and through nice areas, what caught my eye was the morning clouds.

We touched the ocean at two different locations. There was calm, gentle water where usually there's wind and turbulence. We watched a fellow paddle through in a small light outrigger style open kayak. He was moving! Small children were playing at the waters edge mindfully watched by parents and grandparents.  My mind wandered to the change coming up in our own lives over the next couple of years as we will shortly become grandparents. I wonder how quickly I'll walk with a small one on my back again? Something to ponder. Could there be a distance training opportunity?; )

Again I found my eye pulled skyward. Shapes, colours, lighting and textures.



I was playing in my garden yesterday. Shortly I'll be following the big black bumble bees around in search of a good photo as they go in search of the nectar.

The late day light seemed to almost create a halo on the chives flowers. A difficult image to capture with a simple camera particularly while attempting to not tread on the leaks and tomatoes!


On the virtual camino I 'initially' selected a long stage today to Triacastela because I walked it in 2018 and it's a comfortable day. Long, because we climb from just over 600m to just over 1300m. Not particularly troublesome because most of the climb stretches over an 8 kilometre section during the first 13 kilometres and I planned things for this longer stage to climb while still fresh. Then there's an undulating section for about 10 kms before a steady and then steep descent into Triacastela, a decent town to spend the night. Lots of folks spend the night in O'Cebreiro at the summit of the first climb and in 2013 we did as well; Ken, Annemarie, Karen, Jen and myself, but I'll shortly come to that. However, I've just changed my mind.

This video should have gone into yesterday's post. From just before the end of the stage yesterday.

After a good breakfast with a bit of protein it was time to leave the warmth of the fire (yup, I was pretty spoiled) and head out the door into -3.

Not too far out of town there's a divide. One way for the walkers and thankfully a place where you can loose the cyclists. There were none, cyclists that is, in November 2018.

The climb gets started with a little more focus once off the road.



The small dog in the background followed us for quite a way up, one of the hazards on the camino.



Eventually the trail exits the trees and tunnel-like feeling just after passing through the small village of La Faba.





There's those clouds again.

In 2013 it was raining and blowing , while in 2018 I was fortunate to climb without rain until just before I arrived at the top, but the higher I went the more the wind blew and the colder it became.



A big moment when pausing at the border marker for the Province of Galicia! Bring on the food and the music!







Remember the horses at the bottom?

When we arrived at the top we went looking for Ken, and found out that he was staying in the same really nice little place above the town bar!

The view from our window after the rain had settled in late in the day.

Everything hung up to dry.

Ken's journal comments;

12 km up the mountain today, then put into a hotel--some privacy, a bath, space to put my wet things up to dry. It was humid this morning and I sweated through everything on the climb even though it wasn’t very warm. My boots seem a little wet from yesterday--the gaiters were probably overkill and I likely wet them from the inside. My socks were soaked, anyway. It’s raining now but [it] held off until we were almost here--not rain so much as a kind of aggressive drizzle. My room has a bathtub and that was nice. 

Walked up with Karen and Jennifer--an Australian and American who were at Gaucelmo. Jennifer was slow to warm to me but I think she did a bit. She’s an Episcopalian priest--asked me straight out why I’m doing this, which is, I suppose the best icebreaker.

Lots of people looking for spaces here--feel lucky, and grateful, to be able to stay in the hotel for a change. Saw the Spanish couple who asked about the municipal albergue. Wherever my next stop ends up--Triacastela?--I’ll be in the municipal, too. This is a special treat--so is the short day. A way to baby my knees.

Should see Geoff and Annemarie here--I know this was going to be one of their stops. Her toe will be sore today.

The nice story is that we all had dinner together that night. Jen spoke fluent Spanish and made this great connection with the woman who ran an eatery. Jen ordered pulpo (octopus) for the table and we feasted and drank wine like we were in Galicia, which we were! The 5 of us became good friends and spent considerable time together all the way to Santiago. Ken needn't have worried. To this day, 7 years later, all of us with the exception of Karen have stayed in close contact, though I'll have to ask Jen if she managed to stay connected with Karen. This is taken from the front of the church looking into town as the rain dumped.

That night the skies finally cleared and there was a full moon.

In 2018 I climbed alone in a howling wind storm that was blasting the town which sits on the saddle top of the mountain. It's extremely exposed, though on a sunny summer day I suspect there is nowhere much better. Both late fall days I was there, it wasn't showing itself in a fine light as I'm sure it can.

There were trees down all over the place along the ridge line. I arrived and stayed just long enough to have a quick look around wishing that all our 2013 crew were there, and then I visited the church before walking onwards.



Inside it wasn't particularly warm, but I was out of the elements and I changed some of my clothes after getting a stamp in my credential.

I was readying myself to set off again. However, I've decided to stop here for today. This is a virtual camino and I liked the vibe of this town, though it was always cold and wet when I was here. Reliving all the nice memories of the night we spent here in 2013 has helped me to change my mind!

Besides, Annemarie has just made me a nice dinner! We will have a look at the beautiful descent and Tricastela tomorrow.

Buen Camino!

Villafranca del Bierzo - Las Herrerias, 19 kms

An Exciting Day!

It's been quite the day! Setting out for an apparently routine walk, we changed our minds and went the opposite direction. We try to change up our local walking and we transited several new areas today.

I like this shot from last night. This honey bee on our chives appears to be looking up at me.

Thinking to come up our local climb from the back side, we instead walked past the turn off and coming to a street with a 'No Exit' sign we again almost passed by. However, Annemarie noticed a small figure of a walker at the bottom of the sign, meaning we could likely get through. So we climbed up the street and a very young spotted fawn crossed just in front of us. I motioned to Annemarie to be on the lookout for the mother, and a second later she too passed in front of us. The fawn was a newborn, just days old.

With all the walking we've done in our community over the years you'd think we'd have seen a fawn feeding. Nope, this was a first.

We passed through and found ourselves on a neat little path and came upon a great place to take a moment.

We passed by the woman who told me that she was clearing the blackberry brambles. I asked her how much she was doing and she answered, "all of it!" Another 'triple P' thing, a Pandemic Pruning Project! That's a very tough job she's doing.

Further along we found the cotton wood trees were in full seeding stage. It was coming down heavily on some section of the trail and looked like a like dusting of snow. Dad, this wan't far from your house and you might be noticing more hay fever these days.

It was making life miserable for this slug!

Then we descended through a beautiful forest trail.

I finally found the moment to film these two enormous trees.  I've been looking at them for a while wondering when the right moment would come along.

Today the Osprey were available for picture taking.

Home again and gardening again, I began to hear sirens coming our way. I was thinking that it was a typical training exercise, but then a fire engine turned into the university. Soon there were 4 more separate sirens coming from different directions. I decided to walk down our street to have a quick look. I bumped into a fellow from the press, with appropriate social distancing, and he told me that he'd been monitoring the calls. Apparently there was a major natural gas leak and there was indeed a 5 alarm response from 5 different fire stations! Guess I'll have to watch the news tonight; )
As if that wasn't enough excitement, a large plane passed over, not once but at least 6 times. I tried using my phone to take a photo, but that wasn't very satisfying so I used my travel camera. I figured the military was training in our area. Lots of this has been going on recently.

Then the Bald Eagles arrived and began to circle! A pretty decent day.

Yet another halo! We've had halos almost every day when the sun is out. I believe, based on my own unscientific observations, that this is the most halos I've seen over such a short time.


Out on the virtual camino we are still trucking along, walking most days. Yesterday we cycled about 40 kms, and while our group says we can count our riding as part of the camino distances, we won't.  I don't really enjoy cyclists while walking on the Camino, particularly the Frances where there are generally so many. We were going to walk to O'Cebreiro today, but I changed my mind when we had such an interesting day of reality walking. So we will walk to just the foot of the climb. This stage is actually a steady uphill grind throughout the day, but the more fun, steeper climb will have to wait for tomorrow when we are fresh.

The walk out of Villafranca isn't particularly wonderful given it's along the highway.

There is a higher route that can be walked that takes you off the road, but when the weather is poor like it was both times I passed this way, I've learned it makes more sense to just stay on the road. You move faster when you need to and miss the mud! On a sunny clear day then the alternate route would likely be excellent.

Back towards town.



As I learned to love in Japan, when it's raining hard the road tunnels are a nice dry place to walk for a while. Noisy though.

We passed quickly through Pereje. It definitely looked better in 2018,





Arriving in Trabadelo in 2018. Just 9 kms left until the end of the stage!


La Portela. We stopped here on our way through and Neil and Sarah stayed here the previous night. We all stayed in the brown hostel on the left where dinner was also available. There is really little else in this village. I took this photo in 2018 as I passed through. Blue sky always looks better than grey rainy skies like we experienced in 2013.

In 2013.



It was raining in 2013. All the wildlife was tucked up and away!

You can see the rain coming down as we arrived into town in 2013.

So many cats in this town. Ken, you should have stayed in La Portela!

In 2013, we all experienced trouble getting past a local black dog which was fairly aggressive. Neil and Sarah went out the morning before and told us that their encounter with the black dog was quite scary. The next morning it was our turn to deal with this dog, teeth bared. Not fun.

I think the small church is particularly nice because the stone work is a bit different.



This would be Vega de Valcarce where Ken stayed in 2013. In 2018 I like the look of this small town, and I wished we'd known to stay here in 2013. It was literally just a couple of kilometres up the road.

Ken's recollections;

Rain--steady drizzle--and everything is wet. There’s a washer and dryer here, which is good--my rain pants are musty, my fresh socks soaking wet--and that helps to offset the atmosphere here--the hospitalera ain’t so hospitable.

How to be grateful for the rain? You can be grateful that it isn’t raining any harder.It brings out the smell of the wild fennel along the roadside.

It’s good preparation for the rain farther on in Galicia--this was drizzle; that will be something else entirely. Walking wet is not the same as walking dry. It makes you appreciate the sunny days even more. All of the landscape I’ve been admiring for weeks--vineyards, wheat fields, olive groves--need rain, and supposedly it was a very dry summer this year.

Arriving into Las Herrerias in 2013.

A nice little town where it turns out that you can pay to get onto a horse that will carry you up to O'Cebreiro if you don't fancy the climb. You can see the horses beside the fellow in the yellow jacket.

I stayed in a small family run hostel in 2018 just after leaving the village, and I believe I was served Ken's favourite soup!

That's it for today.
Buen Camino!