After almost a month of walking the camino, we are only a few days away from our main destination - Santiago de Compostela. If you are around on Monday October 27th in between 9-10am (your time in Canada - EST), watch us on the web cam coming into the main square in Santiago.
You can see us around the main stairs of the cathedral in the main square of Santiago. We will try to go on top and below the stairs. We will stay in the square for at least an hour. I will have a black jacket on and Bow will be wearing his yellow rain jacket so you can pick us out on the cam.
Go to:
http://www.crtvg.es/ingles/CamWeb/primenucamarasflash.htm
When you go to this site, you will be interested in the cam under "Province of A Coruna". You will specifically want to look at the cam called "Obradoiro Square". This cam will show you different shots of the stairs leading up to the cathedral.
Sometimes the cam takes a minute or two to load. I should also let you know that it sometimes doesnīt work for certain people - not too sure why.
See you on Monday in between 9-10am!
******
We continue to enjoy the walk each day. We have now entered the most beautiful part of the walk, which is an area called Galicia. This area is how I had imagined Ireland to look like - green, rolling hills, farmland, stone walls, and of course lots of rain and mist.
Two days ago was one of my favourite days of the walk. We had a bit of a sleep in and didnīt get walking until around 9:30am because itīs dark quite late in the mornings. We left the very cute town of Villafranca and headed straight up to a walking path way above the city and valley below. It was such a treat because the path was filled with chestnut trees and with the sun, crisp air, and their leaves changing colours we felt like we could enjoy the fall weather that we are missing at home. There were many locals out picking the chestnuts to resell at the market - a very tedious job.
What goes up, must come down and this path was no different. The path led us to an extremely steep route down to a small village where we ate lunch. We knew that there were many other pilgrims on the route that day but none were in sight. Once again we felt like the only walkers on the route to Santiago.
We spent our afternoon wandering through little villages and then the real climb began. Everyone had been talking about the steep but beautiful climb up to Cebreiro, which is the village on top of the mountain as you enter into Galicia - it was an 8km climb straight up. We started the walk up around 4pm. It took us almost three hours of climbing and enjoying the views (we were in total awe of its beauty!) before we reached the top. We were pleasantly surprised to find the cutest village of Cebriero on top. It was a little village with a cute little church, a few restaurants, houses, and the refugio. All of the buildings were stone with thatched rooves. As we walked into the village, there was a little store playing Galician music outside (similar to Irish Celtic music) which really set the tone.
We couldnīt have been happier to arrive at the heated refugio (heat is a treat!) and to have boiling hot showers (also a treat!). We quickly got ready and headed out to enjoy the menu del dia at the local restaurant with many other pilgrims.
One of the beauties of the camino is that you feel like you are travelling with a community. When you head out to the restaurants at night, there are always people from all over to chat with. When you go to buy groceries for lunch or breakfast, the store is usually filled with about 20 other people you know or recognize. When you go into a bar at lunch you can sometimes meet up with people you havenīt seen for days or even weeks. Today, for example, as we were leaving the refugio we met up with Remi, the Aussie who we lost almost two weeks ago, so we spent the day walking with him.
So whatīs next? After we arrive in Santiago on Monday we will hang out and enjoy the city until Wednesday morning. Then we will walk out to the Atlantic Ocean from Santiago to a place called Cape Fisterra. Itīs 90 kms or a three-day walk from Santiago. If you walk almost the whole way across Spain, you might as well really do it up! Weīll be back in Santiago for Halloween night and then weīll take the train to Portugal on November 1st.
Happy Halloween!
Jill
Hello everyone, here are my thoughts...
Many of you have been up to the famous "Sierra Designs factory outlet store" up in Foymount (in the middle of Renfrew county, I might add!, as well as where we bought our rain gear that really came in handy on this trip so far!). Just above Foymount there is another town way up in the middle of nowhere called Quadville, also known as "Up in Godīs Country", well, I beg to differ but Cebreiro is now the little village that is up in Godīs Country!! Wow, what a breath taking journey that was 2 days ago!
We were leaving this cutie little town called Villafranca and the day looked to be a little coudy and overcast. We chose the "high road" as Jill mentioned, and there was no turning back. But, we did meet the first ornery dog on the walk. I tell you this little dog was ready for a fight, so I gave him one. He would bark and then run away and then became more confident as he got closer to his house. This is where the first challenge began... He took a few steps closer so I wacked my walking stick on the ground and he retreated. He challenged again but the same result... we made it past his little backdoor path to his home and then he tried a sneak attack from behind, but I was ready! I swung my stick back and forth with teeth gritted and he finally retreated once and for all, but not after I distracted him with a light tossing of a rock in his direction. This little ankle biter put up a good fight but there was no way he was getting through me, the overprotecting husband that I am! My wife was proud!
Anyways, back to our unbelievable day... the walk up the first mountain was quite steep at the beginning but it got the ticker pumping and the body temperature rising. By the time we reached the summit, the sun was out in full force and no clouds to be seen! Welcome to the wonderful region of Galicia! And this was just the beginning!
Like Jill has said, the middle part was nice but the last 8 km, Wow! I must quote our map that we have been using as a guide because it sometimes has some unique phrases to describe pretty much the same thing... By this time we have walked over 20 km and we know the last bit is going to be hard on us, but we were mentally prepared. So as we start our ascent I read Jill the description of the next little section... "You will cross a little bridge over the river and then begin an "arduous" 2 km hike"... and then "after you reach the village of La Faba you will continue for 2 "long" km until you reach Laguna..." Well, whoever wrote the guide book, at this point 2 km straight up is 2 km straight up, letīs call a spade a spade! But it was worth it because the views were amazing!
Cebriero was also worth every ounce of energy that we utilized to reach this little village that stood up above the clouds, or as I mentioned earlier, up in Godīs country! Though I must admit, I didnīt think the stairway to Heaven would be so difficult!
The next day we planned on doing around 30 km because we wanted to split up the next two maps. We woke up and the mist and fog were quite thick. You could barely see 30 feet in front of you. I began in shorts and a couple of shirts, but after 5 minutes of walking I thought I better throw on my rain pants and rain coat, not only for the possibility of it raining but for sheer warmth! Well let me tell you, it was one of my best decisions that I have made thus far on this trip because within the next hour we walked through thick fog, rain, sleet, hail and then finally, the white stuff! Here we are thinking that weīve avoided snow for the next year but we were wrong! Mother Nature threw everything she had at us but we trudged along... at points it was testing our inner strength to continue but we prevailed and the next thing we knew the sky had changed to a beautiful blue sky with the sunīs warmth taking the chill out of our bones. It was a welcoming site! (I think the three Cola Caoīs may have helped to warm us as well throughout the day! We all have our weakness!)
We finally reached the original destination we set out for but we could see the city of Sarria off in the near distance so we thought we would attempt to make it before the sun went down. It was the first sunset we have seen over the whole walk and it was nice. We made it into Sarria under the cover of darkness but not without incident... another ankle biter trying to bite my wife, can you believe my luck. Well, to make a long story short, we both survived and made it to the refugio by 8:30 (we left at 9:30 that same morning). The man running the refugio looked like Max Keeping without the pony tail, the resemblance was uncanny! We went up to grab our bunk for the night and to our surprise we find that the floor in the refugio is heated! WE couldnīt believe it, did it ever feel nice on the feet after our long journey! Then, to our surprise, Max himself offers us a ride to a restaurant and we had a great meal!
Thatīs enough for now, but like Jill mentioned we are going to reach Santiago in 4 days!! Itīs just under 90 km from where we are now. But thatīs not the end. We are going to walk the remaining 90 km to the ocean to make it our final destination. I canīt wait to be done, but Iīm immensely enjoying every minute of it! What an experience, I recommend it to anyone!
thanks for all the comments... Jim glad to hear tight ass is alive and well, and Chris (aka. Shlomo) remind me never to get into a game of balderdash with you! What an imagination!
Congrats to my fellow coworkers Penny (on buying her new home in BBQ haven) and Andy for finally popping the question to Sarah!
Talk to you all soon!
Bow.