Camino Frances Journal – Day 32

A glimpse into the journal I kept for all 38 days on the Camino Frances, including up to 10 photos (not necessarily the best pictures but more that they represent that day in some particular way). Today is day 32 – May 22^nd. La Faba to Triacastela

Headed off about 7:30am by myself. It was wonderfully sunny and cool. But as I got higher up into the mountains, the clouds and mist got thicker. It was very pretty. The climb was fairly steep in parts. Near the top, I walked by this bar (probably exists only because of the Camino) and all of a sudden, I heard, “Hey, Stranger!” I turned around and it was English Mark! I joined him in the bar and found Polish Alek, Irish priest Derek, and Australian Claire. …

Further up the mountain, we officially crossed into our final province – Galicia. And apropos, it was misty. …

O’Cebriero was tiny and yet again, I wished I had time to explore it. I couldn’t really see much of it because of the mist but that just made it fantastically atmospheric. The church here, part of it dates back to the 9th century. …

Chatted part of the walk with Claire. Turns out we both have the same little dream of owning a bookshop-café that features local art. But mine will also have a cloister-like feature as well! …

The further we got down the mountain, the more gorgeous the weather got. At one point, we met two Americans at a windblown pilgrim statue. Father and son. Dad looks like a surfer dude who fathered his son at a pretty young age. We also came across a French tour bus driver who asked if we wanted a drink. The bus had a little machine that made us hot chocolate. Turned out he was ferrying about deluxe pilgrims. For one week, they walk 15-ish kilometers while their bags stay on the bus, they are driven to the next location for the night, they stay at a hotel, and the next morning they do it again. To each, his own, I guess…

Much of the latter part of the walk was through tiny tiny Galician hamlets. Most were of the farming sort so sometimes had to watch where I stepped. But it was so much fun seeing a little glimpse into other people’s lives. At one point, we came to a giant downhill and there was a large group of noisy day trippers (after more than 30 days on the Way, it was pretty easy to recognize “thru-walkers” vs “day trippers”). After a while, it started to hurt my knees walking slowly downhill behind this group. So I decided to employ my trick I learned from the New Zealanders – bent my knees, short steps, and off I went bounding down the hill. Everyone must have thought I was crazy. But when I reached the next hamlet, I bought an ice cream and enjoyed it while I waited for Claire and Derek to catch up with me. …

Triacastela is meh. There used to be three castles here apparently but none exist today beyond the carving of three castles on the tower of the church. And that was the extent of what was interesting in Triacastela – not even the inside of the church was interesting. …