Camino Wander #3: Day 40

Ponferrada to Cacabelos

It’s back to walking. It feels good. I love this section of the Camino. We are back to rolling hills and mountains surrounding us. of course that means I’m going to have to walk up those hills in the coming days, but it’s so picturesque, I’ll be too distracted by the views to care. Ha! I say that now…

I left Ponferrada earlier than I usually do. I skipped breakfast (and coffee) with the plan to stop at the first cafe open in the next town.

Sarah (Lichtenstein) was walking today and while we didn’t start out together, I knew she’d catch me. (When she puts her headphones in, she finds her pace and off she goes. With her longer legs and love of Bon Jovi, she’s faster than me.)

Walking out of the city, there not many pilgrims around me. I wondered why. It doesn’t matter really - I was just surprised it was so empty at that time of the morning. it was peaceful. I found my pace walking along the river, past the soccer fields and through the outskirts of town. Around me, clouds hugged the mountains.

I stopped at one point when the storks swooped around me. They were so graceful, riding the air current. I must have been very engrossed because the Civil Guardia drove toward me and stopped. I pointed to the storks and then touched my heart. They smiled and continued on. I’m sure they have many a pilgrim mesmerised by them, but maybe not as I have since learned that they are common in Europe.

My plan to stop for breakfast was stifled by the fact that nothing was open for almost 9km. I FaceTimed my husband at some point before coffee, and he said I was Bat Shit Crazy when I shared an observation with him. But I corrected him by saying that this is the woman you get before coffee. 🤣

I’ll share the observation with you but you have to be familiar with the movie French Kiss, and Kein Kline’s comment : “you people make my ass twitch”. My observation is this. When I walk past Spanish women, and say ‘Buen día’ (which is the polite thing to do), I get a gruff ‘buen día’ in response with a look that says anything but, and sounding like they’ve smoked a packet of cigarettes before 7am. Every single time.

I finally found coffee and a tortilla de patata (like a potato omelette but tall and firm) then kept walking. By then, I’d walked more than 9km but I still hadn’t seen Sarah. I checked my phone and saw her message to meet for brekky in the next town. She was right behind me.

After breakfast we walked together, and it’s always amazing how fast the kilometres go when you get chatting. We were joined a little while later by an American woman who was stopping at the same place I was.

One thing I’ve noticed, between the meseta and the regions either side, is how well tended the gardens are and how invested people are in their small vegetable/fruit crops. In comparison, the meseta seems sad, derelict, abandoned because many of younger generation on the meseta leave for larger cities, leaving the older generation to maintain it, but it’s becoming too much for them now. Even in some smaller towns, I’ve noticed that the parks that were well tended in 2019 are now filled with weeds. There was one I passed today that I remember as being vibrant, a place for pilgrims to stop in the shade and have a drink at the nearby cafe - maybe even have breakfast - but now it’s just vacant and overrun.

When we arrived in Cacabelos, Sarah stopped for a little while, but she had to keep going. It was warming up and she still had two hours to walk. We said goodbye - probably the last time we will see each other since I need to slow down a bit. She’ll be Santiago at least a week before me. But there’s always the tattoo dream.

I sat with the American woman - Angelica - and we chatted about kids and various other things, as more pilgrims joined us. Ulf appeared. So did Tom (the retired minister). I didn’t leave for another two hours. It was lovely. Sarah would have been in Villafranca before I left that table.

Tomorrow I will walk about 8km, leaving early because the temperature is heating up over the next few days. As mentioned, I’ll be slowing my pace (unfortunately) because I have booked a room in O Cebreiro, which is at the top of the mountain, and it’s somewhere I’ve wanted to stay since my first Camino. It’s very hard to find a bed there as there are limited spaces and I can’t change my booking. So I will space out the next 37km over 7 days! I guess I will be getting some writing done!

Steps: 24,980 steps

Distance: 16.8 km

Feeling: Part of me wants to say ‘screw it’, cancel my booking and keep walking. But I know I will get home and be disappointed that I didn’t stay at OCebreiro. But it’s hard now to stay on the trail. I’m ready for it to be over. Ready to wear my normal clothes again. I mean, I’ve been rotating two sets of clothes for six weeks. Maybe I just need to find a pool somewhere … Hahahha!

Sarah from Lichtenstein… heading off

Tom, mid giggle, and Ulf