Camino Pilgrim

I got a proper ten hours of sleep. It felt great. Twice as much as on my worst nights. I could really feel the energy flow through me as the road was going downhill. I passed around thirty hikers while walking fast in the first three hours. Even three cyclists were left behind after a game of cat and mouse.

Hiking on the side of a highway is usually boring, but today was the exact opposite. Every three or four kilometers, a small village appeared. The road turned away from the highway and kept getting smaller and smaller. In the end, it was so small that one car was barely able to navigate the streets.

Cars turned slowly into cows on the fields. They were even staring at you out of windows as seen in the picture. The hiking through the woods and uphill also started to contain cow pancakes. Now I had to carefully watch every step going forward. Just before reaching the lovely region of Galicia there was a moderately large viper in the middle of the mountain trail. A small bird was right next to it as it was slowly crossing the path. I was expecting to see the viper attack, but it seemed peacefully continuing its way. The bird was frozen from fear like a stone statue until it was safe to fly away.

The mountain village of O Cebreiro has an amazing view of the surrounding valleys and mountains. It even had two shops which are not that common around here. I bought myself food to cook for dinner and have for breakfast. It really saves you a lot of money and you can start eating as soon as possible instead of waiting out the several hour siesta break in restaurants. I’m slowly starting to have issues consuming a three-course pilgrim meal after hiking, since it’s too much food at once and makes the stomach hurt. Better have things in my own control.

I managed to get a small blister between my toes from yesterday’s long hike. There are no injuries, so I can keep going strong along the mountaintops tomorrow. I am so happy to have the region of Castilla y León finally behind me. It was a huge chunk of land filled with desert. Galicia is full of forests that flow to the ocean from here.