20.7 km (664.9 km) – 133 km to go to Santiago
Tuesday 19th April

The guide book said that the views out of O’Cebreiro were spectacular, I’m just glad we saw some of them yesterday because today it was back to full waterproofs and a steady stream of soggy pilgrims walking, heads down just trying to reach the first coffee stop. All this talk of rain must sound awful but in truth it’s not that bad, it’s the being soaked through that’s not great – although ,even then, it’s usually pretty easy to dry out once you reach your final destination and that €1 vino tinto couldn’t taste any better at the end of a day like today…Every so often the rain did stop, long enough to whisk out the phone and take some photos. It was another day of the most beautiful scenery; I will come back (in a car!). There was a marked change in the villages as well as the scenery over the last couple of days. We have entered the Gallician area, there is much more evidence of cattle and dairy farming and the villages are very old fashioned, reminiscent of Nepal, as if time has stood still.

A few people have asked me which bit of this is the best and the truth is that I’m not sure but would still recommend doing the whole walk, if possible. The first part was certainly more sociable because everyone was travelling to the same places each day. At Burgos, and then Leon this changed and now I meet new people every day, which is still fine but it was quite comforting to see the same faces each evening at the start. On the other hand the scenery in this area, Gallicia, is breathtakingly beautiful and certainly easier on the eye than the flat planes of the Meseta. As for the chat, and making friends along the way, it is definitely not like in the film ‘The Way’. Most pilgrims are either walking on their own, like me, or with the friends they came with. You might catch someone up and walk for a bit with them but then you’d move on (or that might just be me!). In the evenings if there are fellow walkers in the bar or in the restaurant then I would go and join a table, knowing that most people on the table don’t really know each other and everyone is doing the same (although the language barrier does create a problem on occasions). Then again some pilgrims are on a much more private ‘pilgrimage’ and keep themselves, very much, to themselves.
It has been a short day in preparation for the final four longs days, the fifth day being short also so that we have time to spend in Santiago before continuing on for the final four days to Finisterre and Muxia. When you look on the map it seems logical to keep walking, once you’ve come as far as Santiago until you run out of land – the end of the earth, Finisterre.