Remarkable morning today, when we got up at our luxurious home away from home at Fonfría. The gusts of wind that I kept hearing and, actually, feeling with all my sleepy body as I was, hm, well, in the bathroom, reminded me a bit too much of a stormy morning back home. Naturally, I refused to believe it, but yes, it was rainy and windy at the western end of the O Cebreiro pass. Wool shirt, wool jumper and a gore-tex rain jacket worked just fine for this fine summer morning in Spain.
A long descent – not too tiring or demanding on the knees, but still long – down to Triacastela, from which there were two options. Bravely, we chose the shorter one. Shorter, yes, but it did add some extra hundreds meters ascent to this stage, so, you know, trade-offs.
By then the weather normalised somewhat – actually, as soon as we came down from the mountain and out of the clouds.
On approach to Sarria we stopped for some of these lovelies:
…and some Calda Gallego – Galician vegetable soup. Also met Davidas from Lithuania who was happy to speak Russian to us. The fisherman dude. Happy as a day, although suffering from blisters. He tells us about a young Russian couple from St.Petersburg who are around here somewhere – behind us, he thought.
We wanted to avoid touristy prices in Sarria by having a lunch before we reached the center, but it actually looked quite honestly priced in town, as well (without much detailed inspection). It didn’t seem like there’s too big of a crowd of pilgrims, so far, and a lady at the information office confirmed it. She thinks we wouldn’t have too much trouble finding beds, even without reservation. Sounds good – hope she’s right.
In my bunk at the quite unremarkable albergue now, after a rather unremarkable dinner. But here we’ve actually met the Russian couple – Nikita and Olga. Absolutely great young people, love them. The effort they put into being here is unbelievable. Hope to see them again, actually.
I managed to look like an outstanding piece of work, though, by nonchalantly helping myself to their instant coffee without asking – all while talking to them. I honestly (but stupidly) thought it was albergue’s… Facepalm moment.
Patchy wifi – let’s try to not forget to put in pictures later.
