Day 29, O Cebreira to Triacastela
No fireworks, but a huge thunderstorm. with heavy rain, which as been going on for a couple of hours, starting soon after 3pm.
I had a most unsettling arrival in the village of Triacastella. I got here before 1pm - before my suitcase - so I went to a very friendly bar and had a beer and lots of free nibbles and nuts, which they kept pressing on me.
That was nice and I came back to my room happy, grabbed my suitcase and had a shower and did some washing.
There's a sort of sunroom just outside my door, so I slung up my clothesline and hung out the washing.
The next thing I knew, a large, loud Spaniard was shouting and gesticulating and taking my line down. I saw red and there were some loud raised voices, including my own, giving him some choice abuse in English. He was extremely rude and I wasn't happy about it.
It turned out there was a clothesline in the garden, and he was directing me there - but doing it as if I was an imbecile, so I took my washing down there, shaking with anger. It took me some time to get over it, but in the meantime, the thunderstorm brought copious rain all over my laundry. A while ago the sun was out, so I went and squeezed it all out, but now it's pouring down again, so I'm going to have to bring it in and rig up some sort of line in my room - the joys of travel.
But to get back to the day. I started early from O Cebreira at 1330m and climbed even higher for a time, through quite nice trails with big views. Did a coffee stop about 10am, but otherwise just plodded on, taking in the views (which are in the album at the bottom of the page).
Much of the descent was through farms, and even through the back yards of the farm buildings, with very pleasant narrow paths near the bottom as I approached Triacastela at just over 21km.
As far as I can tell, I have about 135km left (the photo was taken soon after I left this morning. As well, there are more signs marking the trail, although I'm enjoying having the comfort of my Camino app, which indicates if I stray by even a couple of metres off the trail.
It's 5.30pm. The rain has stopped (although I can still hear the rumble of thunder). The sun is out and it's still four hours until the sun goes down, so I might optimistically leave the washing out. I went up to the supermarket a little while ago and took the precaution of getting a plastic bag - I may have some damp washing to transport tomorrow.
Tomorrow I reach Sarria. I've read that Sarria is the busiest starting point of the Camino (ahead of St Jean Pied de Port), because it's possible to get your certificate of completion if you do the last 100km. That means the foot traffic is going to increase.
Tomorrow I only have 18km to walk, so no rush to make an early start, although there's a good chance of rain. I'll post this blog now, since I have good wifi (you may notice I posted yesterday's blog only a couple of hours ago too) and you can never take that for granted.
It's now 7.30pm and I notice only one person has looked at this blog - most people in NZ are still asleep - it's 5.30am in the morning after all - so I can add a bit. I went back to the bar where I had lunch. The pilgrim menu was only 10 euro. I thought I should live dangerously so had the specialties. For the first course I chose the Galician soup and for the second a dish with tongue - plus red wine.
The full bottle of wine arrived immediately, followed 30 seconds later by the soup. The instant I finished the soup, a big hand took away the bowl and the other hand delivered the second course. I was well through that when my friends Tom and Beth from Fort Lauderdale came in and sat with me, so it was a lovely little reunion.
7.30pm and I'm back in my room. Incredibly, the thunder and rain are still going full force. Nice to be snug in my room, even if it looks like a laundry. Provided I duck my head I can get around just fine.
Here's today's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/R9WJe7HYG31Zr5TV6
Here's today's watch download: https://app.suunto.com/move/
That was a very unfortunate incident regarding that rude man, Peter. These people should realize that they likely wouldn't survive without the Camino traffic. I post regularly to TripAdvisor - both the negatives and the positives. We also had lots of rain last year in Galicia when we walked this last year.
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