We didn’t get started this morning until 9:30. We had a leisurely breakfast and then I starting working on some things for my husband, and missed getting my one BIG bag to the Correos. But, Bruce ran downstairs and thankfully the Correo truck was still there and I was able to get my bag to them. Whew! That would have been a disaster!
We walked down to the stables….really just a house on the side of the road and got on our English saddles on the horses. My horses name was Paula. We brought up the back and she was s l o w. But, she carried me safely up the mountain. In the rain. Over slick rocks and mud. It was super cloudy at the top, so we didn’t get much in the way of photos.
We got off the horses at the top of the pass, about 5 miles up from where we started. It took us two hours. We warmed up in a bar with some grilled octopus, and some Spanish tortilla (eggs and potatoes) and some coffee.
Victor, our ‘guide’, was a nice guy. Worked as an economist in Madrid, retired, and started this horse business on the camino. He got tired of working in a cube in an office, and wanted to do something outdoors. He was supposed to go to British Columbia and work on a ranch this year, but….well….you know.
Almost at the top of the pass, we crossed from the province of León into Galicia. The trails are HUGELY different. Galicia maintains their camino beautifully. It’s a nice, dirt, country road. A pleasure to walk on. Not the Hell of the loose rocks and giant boulder-type things the poor horses had to walk up today, and we had to walk down two days before. We also noticed that the camino markers have the destination mileage down to the meter. So, we see 154.756, instead of just 154km.
We passed lots of farms with all sorts of animals. Cows, pigs, parakeets, cats, dogs. Cute little towns, too. The beautiful albergues we saw on the way down were all closed, but they were all so amazingly beautiful. I can only imagine what it’s like in normal years.
Our albergue is very nice. The woman made sure our heater was turned on when we checked in. Normally they aren’t on and only come on for a short period of time before they go off. But, I’m mot sure if it was because we didn’t get into our rooms until 6pm or not. We will see tomorrow at our next accommodation.
We went out to dinner immediately. I ordered a steak tonight. What a mistake that was. It was so tough I couldn’t cut it. Once I did get a small piece cut off, it was so difficult to chew that I just gave up. My first course was a nice bowl of veggie-type soup, so that was fairly filling. My appetite hasn’t been as voracious as I would have thought after walking 15 miles each day. I’ve been eating a lot of bread. It’s good here. Of course, bread in Europe is always good, so I’m getting my fill of it now. Because once I get back to ‘normal’, no more bread. I am so looking forward to veggies that aren’t canned.
The step count is going to be off, since it counted the horses steps as well. 😝 But, we estimate that it was 5 miles and 10,000 steps for the horses, included in the figures below. Also…..we have less that 100 miles left.
14 Oct 2020 ~ 41,311 steps ~ 17.2 miles ~ 45ºF ~ 🌧
