Day 3: Las Herrieras to O’Cebreiro (6mi/10km/2100 vertical feet)

We spent the night in a new guest house overlooking bright green fields with grazing cows and a wandering german shepherd. Dinner consisted of fresh trout (Jessica) and marinated pork ribs stinging with paprika (John). We struck up a conversation with two Scottish couples who were biking the Camino, and talk turned to other walking holidays. We asked if they had done the West Highland Way. They had. How long did it take? “Oh, we took it easy – about seven days – 15 miles a day.” With that exhausting thought in our head we went to bed and slept long and well.

After a pleasing breakfast of fruit, café con leche, yogurt, cake, and toast, we began walking along the river, which was reasonably calm. Mist was rising in the side canyons. As we climbed, the views became more and more spectacular, and I was reminded of our walk in Wales where we rose up and up out of villages, the path more and more muddy.

We probably greet 10-20 fellow peregrinos on the road each day. Most are not American. In fact, we’ve talked with only one, a birder from Portland, OR. Most walkers are from Spain, and some are doing a religious pilgrimage. We stopped in the church here at O’Cebreiro, and watched a young couple lighting candles at a side alter. Some peregrinos make it a point to stop at every open church on the Camino, which is quite a commitment since every village, no matter how small, has its church. Although not on a religious quest, per se, and certainly not a Catholic one, we are planning on attending an “everyone welcome” peregrino mass in Tricastela tomorrow. (I’ll write about the spiritual part of this journey in a later post.)

Most walkers are younger than us – no great surprise – and a youthful, adventuresome spirit shows itself frequently.

We crossed into Galicia today, with Celtic heritage and Celtic background music playing in the bar where we rested after an intense climb. There is even a Galician bagpipe. 

And Galacian reconstructed medieval dwellings with straw roofs.

The weather forecast was wrong! (Another Camino sign?) Much of the day was beautiful with no rain today until we were well ensconced in our room. The climb was continuous and hard to O'Cebreiro at 1330 meters, but the views were beautiful. We finished tired, but not exhausted. And tomorrow we go down hill!