There's Giancarlo from Italy, a guy who is always smiling and so cheery. He's fast on the trail, and one of the first ones to leave every morning. We only catch up to him when he stops to talk to people, and that's quite often.
There's also Jose. Jose is from Portugal and super nice. He's using the Camino as a life reset to get healthy.
It's wonderful to meet people who are on the journey with you because they become your Camino family. You start to look out for one another, share supplies, and hear their stories. It's really neat. Although we speak different languages, we find we can communicate just fine using charades, Google translate, or the limited knowledge we have in the other's native tongue.
As we left Grandas de Salime, it was a 6-mile climb up. This was our last day in the mountains of Asturias. We were looking forward to stopping at a village about 4 miles in for our morning coffee.
That little village did NOT have a cafe. With only 51 people in the town, they all seemed to still be asleep. We continued our climb upward, disappointed and eating our snack supply. The views made up for that disappointment, though.
We continued our climb to the ridgeline, and of course alongside the windmills. I was so happy when I finally had those behind me. That meant the tough climb was over.
Soon, the trail crossed over into the region of Galacia which should be less mountainous but longer mileage. My favorite memories of Asturias were the small villages, the beautiful landscapes, and the thin chocolate cookies that tasted delicious. I'm looking forward to what this new region brings!
Galacia trails are much better maintained and the markers are so easy to find. They even include the distance remainig to Santiago at the bottom. It's fun to watch it decline at the end of each day, but it can be deflating if you feel you walked a long way and it only dropped 1 KM.
The trail blessing today was a surprise lunch spot with gorgeous views! It truly made up for missing our coffee this morning. Halie and I arrived first and were more than happy to hang out a bit waiting for Sally and Eleanor to arrive. We also caught up with some Camino friends. The stop may have been longer than we planned, but it was worth it. Best sandwich ever!
It was tough to get moving again after such a relaxing break. The trail climbed up for two miles. Our reward was more spectacular views.
As we approached the town of A Fonsagrada, this little church was there to greet us.
Another fabulous dinner! First course was a bowl of spaghetti which I scarfed down. Second course was this steak, salad, and fries. Final course was flan. It all comes with wine, too. I ate so much and was stuffed! We have really been blessed by the food, the people, the weather, just all of it. I got to talk to the family as well to make it even better.
I slept so good! It was either the cloth sheets (usually they are paper sheets), or maybe it was a food coma, but I slept from 7pm to 6am. My body needed that rest in preparation for another challenging day to O Cadavo. I kept thinking we'd have an easy day, but I don't think it exists on the Primitivo. Sally and I took a morning photo as we headed out.
The fog provided a pretty backdrop to our first milage marker.
A few hours into the hike we turned a bend and saw a line of backpacks. That can only mean one thing!!!
Our Camino family found coffee! The stop provided a much needed rest break.
Back on the trail we approach this cute chapel just standing alone. Early pilgrims would stop to pray, but they are usually locked up now. See those windmills in the background? Yep, the morning fog hid them from us earlier so we wouldn't know how high we had to climb.
Our albergue was nice. I found this picture on their website that showed our exact beds (# 5,6,7,8). The four of us tried to switch top/bottom bunks every other night to keep it fair. This night I was on a top bunk #5. All eight beds shared the coed bathroom at the end of the hall.
