Day 30 – Villfranca del Bierzo to O Cebrerio
29k – 640k to date
Wow, today was a long day, but worked out nicely. I added an extra 5k of walking (straight up the mountain) today to gain a little advantage on the next couple of days. The first 20k were all slightly uphill as we moved into the mountains of the Galicia provence. Most of that 20k was done on trails beside the road or on small country roads. After 20k, the trail turned offroad and up even more. Pilgrims have talked for weeks about how tough the climb to O Cebrerio was going to be. I would have to say that most of it lived up to the stories. But it was a beautiful day with a little mountain crispness in the air, so it was pleasant to be out. On the final climb of 9k, I just divided it into 3 sections, as there were three villages to divide the climb and before you knew it, I was at the top, ready to stop and rest for tomorrow.
There were a few potential problems extending today which put me in pretty late into my home for the evening. I had no reservation for a bed and was depending on he municipal hostel to have beds available. Upon arriving in town, I was told the hostel is full, so I immediately stuck my head in a small hotel door and asked if there was a room for the night. The lady frowned, then smiled and said follow me, she showed me a small room on the first floor with a small bathroom and said it would be 35 euros. I said yes and I was set with a bed and bathroom. The other problem was it didn’t allow time to air dry my clothes after washing. I was forced to go seek out a dryer in this town. The mercado across the square had one and I took my washed clothes over and asked to buy some tokens to dry my clothes. Wait, it wasn’t that easy. The lady clerk grabbed my bag, started yelling (have I mentioned that Spanish accelerate their volume when making a point), felt the wet clothes and then shook her head and said mucho dinero several times. She was definitely the laundromat nazi. I gave her a 20 euro bill and she gave me 17.75 in change, took the clothes and started the dryer. She said come back in 20 minutes. I did and she pulled the clothes out of the dryer, stated perfecto and grinned for the “favor” she had done for me.
The views of today were fantastic once I started getting to the top of the mountain. It was nice to just stop several times and view the landscape. In the next to last town, I had stopped at the bar to rest and have an orange juice. A couple of friends and I were talking when a small herd of cows and calves were herded down the main street (okay – only street) past the bar and down a trail. Paul said about 15 minutes before I got there, a tractor had pulled up, the driver got out and drank a beer, then got back on the tractor and took off down the road. Such is the pleasures of life in rural Spain. I forgot to mention that last week in one small village, I saw a tractor being backed out of a garage one morning as I walked by. I think the farmer felt that tractor was valuable.
One thing that I did not talk about on the information about Cruz Ferro was that all the people that left there, I noticed after leaving, none looked back. They were all looking forward to the life and adventure ahead. I even noticed I had no desire to look back, I was excited to be moving forward. Maybe that is how life should be, we should all be excited about what is coming and quit worrying about what is past. An old wise man once said, if you spend all your time looking back, all that will happen is you will run into he door.
Moving forward, sometime in leaps, sometimes in bounds and sometimes by inches, but moving forward.
Isaiah 43:18
LOOKING FORWARD!!