When we made ourselves ready to leave the Albergue in Cacabelos on Wednesday morning, we had to be ready for rain. Despite our wishes otherwise, the rain had come as liquid sunshine to color our day. We geared up in our rain gear and got going. After about half an hour, the rain stopped and we got rid of our rain gear again. This rhythm would become the rhythm of the day: every time we felt it would be dry, we changed gear and moments later the rain would start again.
In the end, we walked for about one consecutive hour in the real steady rain. Still, despite this “liquid sunshine”, we had a marvellous walk. Beautiful sights with great heights and fabulous views made it altogether a great day. In a typical Camino fashion, we had some deep conversations with fellow pilgrims. Some conversations continuing onto conversations from previous days, some simply as one of a kind.
Finally, we were treated with a steep climb bringing us to La Faba, a small town located on the flanks of O Cebreiro. This town holds a few Albergues and we opted for the Albergue next to the old church. This Albergue is operated by the German association of St James and the German hospitaleros Franz and Ursula made it a warm welcome for us. By now we reconnected with the girls we had said goodbye to yesterday. They had decided to take it a bit slower than originally planned, and so we turned back to a similar schedule.
The next morning we departed around 7:20 to climb up to O Cebreiro, the highest point before entering Galicia. Slowly, but steadily, we entered the fog still embracing O Cebreiro.
After 4 km of uphill walking with stunning views, we were ready for breakfast and the local bar in O Cebreiro turned into our breakfast location. The walk continued through a nice forest and for the rest of the coming days it would be in the light of descending, with some little and nasty climbs in there to remind us that it can not always be downhill.
Thursday night we stayed at Albergue El Beso, just after Triacastella. El Beso is the Albergue of Marijn and Jessica, a Dutch/Italian couple that met each other on the last day of their Camino a few years back. During my previous Camino, I had been one of their early guests when they had just opened. Now we were able to enjoy their hospitality again. This, combined with their ecological vision, the great food, and the beautiful style in which they rebuild the house, makes for me one of the best Albergues on the Camino.
