It was raining lightly in Herrerias when we left around eight this morning.
Herrerias is at the end of a long valley. A lot of the walk today was up a mountain beyond the valley.
We had just started up the valley when we came upon a group of German pilgrims flummoxed by a bull blocking the Camino.
Anne stared the bull down, and it backed off.
The first village we reached on the side of the mountain was La Faba, where we had breakfast.
When we left the cafe, the friends we had met earlier down the mountain were also walking through the village on the Cowmino.
The herder, carrying an umbrella, led them through the village and up the side of the mountain.
Following a herd of cows uphill, even a small herd, requires one to watch one’s step.
Fortunately, the cows didn’t have far to go before reaching their destination.
After several hours of walking, the clouds started to lift.
Close to the top of the mountain, the sun peeked through the clouds.
At the top of the mountain is the village of O’Cebreiro, which is in the autonomous region of Galicia, the western-most region in Spain. The sun was out when we arrived.
Here is the Iglesia de Santa Maria Real in O’Cebreiro.
We arrived minutes before the noon Mass. The inside of the church was true to its straight-forward design and free of the baroque altar pieces and icons we have seen in other Spanish churches.
When we got out of Mass, we found that rain clouds had started to gather.
We came across a statue commemorating the peregrinos at the Alto San Roque, a pass between two mountain peaks.
Here the view looking back over the valley from the pass.
A little further down the Camino the rain started to close in on us.
It was another long day, not so much the distance, which was about 25 km, or 16 miles, but today we climbed over 600 meters, or almost 2000 feet. This is the second hard day in a row. We have now been on the Camino for over a month–slogging through mud, getting rained on, ordering from the Pilgrim’s Menu at Camino-side tabernas, sleeping in hostels and Casa Rurals–and I’m afraid it’s starting to have an effect.
We walk to Sarria tomorrow, where we have a rest day, which I hope will put us back on track.
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