Day 28 - La Portela nach O Cebreiro

Everyone in my room is a late riser. That's to my advantage today. I'm off at 8am. No breakfast, because the bar doesn't open until half past eight. A little further ahead, however, I at least get a coffee in the "Vagabond" hostel, which the hospitalero promptly shows me. It only has space for 4 people, but everything is very new and clean and culminates in a small communal dinner. Highly recommended, but reservation is essential.
The first few kilometers are along the quiet country road and along the rushing river, through several small villages. In one of them I have breakfast in a long-established bakery. There are quite a lot of people out and about. More than I have seen in the last few days. Well fortified, we then continue steadily up a slight incline. A jogger wearing a pretty cool t-shirt overtakes me, whom I meet again a little later on his way back and speak to him. I want to take a picture of his shirt. "It was an honor to be a part of your solitude."
In Las Herrerias I drink an iced tea before things get serious. Here, as I was about to set off, I meet a few familiar faces and am really a bit stunned. They set off from Villafranca at 5:30 a.m. Along the country road, of course, and not through the beautiful countryside. But at this time of day you can't see anything of the surroundings anyway, because it's pitch black. Well... to each his own. For my part, I want to see where I am, enjoy the nature and take in the impressions. So before the rush comes, I move on.
After just over a kilometer, we finally leave the road. A short stretch along the river, accompanied by a few cows and calves. But then things get really tough. It's a very steep climb. With my technique with the poles, I'm faster uphill than most of the people who are struggling up. I shift my weight forward and run a lot with my arms. This allows me to maintain a normal pace.
At the beginning I was in top shape and my body and especially my legs were completely on the ball. But with every meter it got more strenuous and when it got really muddy I started to sweat a lot.
After a few kilometers I came to a small town, which I quickly left behind. Here I met one of the tourist groups who had traveled the first 20 km from Villafranca to here, including the steepest part, by bus. Even without a heavy backpack it was torture for them to walk the somewhat steeper stretch here and I quickly passed them by, following the motto "eat my stardust".
Up to this point, the route was mainly through the forest and therefore pleasantly cool. But now the sky was clearing and there was less and less shade on the route. The route continued at a constant moderate incline with some very steep sections. The view became, like yesterday, more impressive with every meter.
After I crossed the border into Galicia, the nature of the road changed and everything else seemed greener from one moment to the next.
Meanwhile the sun was blazing again. So I had to look twice when a saddled horse suddenly came towards me and there was no rider in sight. I greeted it as usual with "Buen Camino" and continued on (I only have the video of this and no photo). Incidentally, no rider came until the end. But it had probably brought pilgrims up and knew its way down into the valley.
Slowly I heard bagpipe music in the distance. The typical instrument for Galicia. After a short while I saw the bagpiper and had reached O Cebreiro. A very small mountain village with some thatched roofs.
Here, the priest of O Cebreiro once used leftover paint from a construction site to paint yellow arrows in the forest, marking the Way of St. James for pilgrims. When asked by the police what he was doing, he replied: "I was preparing an invasion." And indeed, the number of pilgrims has increased from a few hundred to several tens of thousands. The yellow arrow can now be found along the entire Way of St. James in Spain and shows me the way to Santiago de Compostela.
As I was walking down the street after a coffee and a piece of cake, wondering whether I should stay here or move on, Ryan suddenly appeared in front of me. He had just arrived by bus from Ponferrada and wanted to move on from here tomorrow. So my decision was made with this little sign. We hadn't discussed it and I didn't know beforehand what his plans were.
Since I only did a relatively short stage today, I will try to go a bit further tomorrow and get ahead of the crowd again so I can have some peace and quiet.
Cost of the day:
Accommodation 10€Breakfast 5€Meals during the day 21€Dinner ??