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Links: to Spain, by way of Windsor: 02 Rally Finish Onto Spain: 05 onto Leon 06 Astorga 08 to El Acebo 12 O'Cebreiro
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O'Cebriero, Spain, 22 May, Thursday
In one of his emails home, Peter did say that "the rain in Spain falls mainly on...wherever I happen to be", a description that at the time brought a smile to my lips. But I'm not smiling now. We've escaped the snow, but only just. Today's section of only 14km would have been impossible for me on foot. Biting cold, win, rain and fog, plus an ascent of nearly 700 metres would have been a stretch too far for me without the aid of a taxi. We happily paid €23 for the ride, during which we passed dozens of struggling peregrinos striding , trudging or stumbling along, under their heavy all-weather gear. |
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 The guide book writers say there are magnificent views from up here in O'Cebreiros. We'll have to take their word for it. We did get a brief glimpse of some of the panorama for five minutes this afternoon, before yet another cloud mass moved in. (later: the weather did improve just a little bit) Tonight, we're in what's called a "country inn" - 'basic' would be a better description. The church our building is attached to dates from the 13th century, and I wouldn't be surprised if the building housing pilgrims is from the same era! The luxury days of Leon and Cacebelos are long gone, if not forgotten... |
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 The tiny church in O'Cebreiro, a village which has only about 20 buildings. I'm told that much of the movie The Way, with Martin Sheen, was filmed here in Cebreiro - I hope they had better weather than we've had! |
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(later)For a very brief period this afternoon, the cloud, fog and rain lifted, and gave us a much better look at this tiny village: |
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left: Dave talking to the Norwegian woman we first met up with a couple of days ago - she'd lost one of her two pairs of socks at a laundry, so we gave her one of my spare pairs, since I always carry too many! |
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Snow on the mountains surrounding O'Cebriero |
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O'Cebriero, Spain, 23 May, Friday, early morning Last night, it was bitterly cold here in O'Cebreiro.
Probably not zero, since the puddles of water outside the stone
buildings hadn't frozen over, but not far off. There would
have been more than 100 pilgrims huddled inside the 20 stone
buildings, protected from the elements by stone walls nearly a metre
thick No other heating though. We'd been told the
heating in our room would come on at 5pm, but no such luck.
In these parts of Europe, a double bed often means two singles pushed together, and so it was last night In search of warmth by cuddling up, I moved over, but then slipped through the gap between the mattresses, onto the iron frame of my single bed. So, I had to be content with the extra blankets piled on top of us. We were better off than a couple of other women we'd chatted to in the bar earlier in the evening They were staying in a very basic albergue, which gave them only a bunk bed each, no blankets. So they planned to sleep fully clothed in their sleeping bags. It almost unbelievable how cheerful every seems to be, enjoying the whole experience and camaraderie. From here, it's mostly downhill. That sounds good, but it's almost as difficult, as we will have to try to avoid sliding and falling in the mud and stones. But, on a bright note, the forecast is for improving weather! We shall see. |
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Four years ago, our
friend, Fr Peter Brock, walked the full length of the Camino de
Santiago de Compostela (and
put the idea in Dave's head that we should do a little bit of it).
Peter did it at an earlier time of year - February, March and April -
and encountered not only wind and rain, but snow and sleet.
Our lack of Spanish meant there was no point in trying to find out
why. One of a group of fellows doing the Comino on bikes told
us it had been snowing yesterday morning at the Iron Cross, a high
point we had been at only three days ago. I had no trouble
believing it.