September 14, 2013
O Cerebro: A day in a spectacular mountain setting
This morning at breakfast we met Jean and her Granddaughter Fiona, they are fellow Kiwis. Jean is absolutely amazing she is just about to turn 79 and has walked every step of the way from St Jean which means that when she gets to Santiago she will have walked over 800km and some of this over very mountainous country. She says she has had no problems, no blisters at all, members of her family have joined her to walk various stages and Fiona said some of them had had more problems than Jean. Fiona is walking this last stage to Santiago with her – Jean says it was a lovely surprise she thought she would be walking it alone.
Today was a day devoted to mountains. Thirty five kilometers all uphill but we had a really great day. Starting from Villafranca the rise is really gentle for about the first 15kilometers. The Valcarce River valley that you are following is very interesting. Above it fly huge motorways but down below in the valley nothing has changed. There are small villages catering to the pilgrims trudging their way up. The agriculture in this valley is largely subsistence and elderly locals are tending their crops and their small herds. We saw two groups harvesting their potatoes and watched a very important dog who was guarding his small flock of sheep and goats. The feeling you get is one of timelessness and the massive motorway seems to have little impact on that feeling. At Ambamsestas we stopped for a coffee and it is here that the walking route and the cycle route diverge and it is here also that the real challenge begins. However it was manageable in our lowest or second lowest gears and we only had to walk for about a kilometer. Up here has a feeling of real remoteness. There were still little villages but they no longer had any services as they are not in the business of farming pilgrims. Looking out over the hills you could see tiny remote villages with precipitous roads leading to them. There are warnings about snow and ice so things up there must be very challenging in the winter. There were quite a lot of cyclists many passing us of course but they didn’t have the big loads we have and I felt satisfied to see that even these fit looking young guys were struggling a bit. The road was once again perfect and we were only passed by about 5 cars all day. However there was a group of about 8 motorcyclists going up this steep, windy road, going down again presumably on the motor way and repeating the process – they passed us 4 times and often very close as we wobbled up. I am afraid the last time I yelled extremely rude words that I don’t usually use after them. We had climbed 825m i.e. 2700feet today
O Ceribro is one of the classic places of the Camino set in the mountains at 1330m. It is built entirely of stone and some of the buildings are thatched. Because of this it has lots of motorized tourists as well as pilgrims. Everyone arriving either by bike or foot looks as if they have had a tough day and the first bar in the village is certainly selling lots of cold beer. Our room in this old stone house is gorgeous with lots of polished wood and very thick walls.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 2,584 km (1,605 miles)
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