Another early morning with most of our walk along the roadside… Believe it or not it was beautiful!  Almost no cars, and the road followed the river valley so that all we heard was the songs of the birds (did I mention I have heard one calling Buen Camino?…at least that’s my interpretation… Right rhythm and intonation!!!)

 We arrived at Trabadelo at around 7, and thought we would be out of luck for breakie (too early) but an Albergue seemed to be open, so in we went…and found a little paradise!  Fresh hand squeezed orange juice with Cafe con Leche and toast… A perfect start!!! When we entered we found a number of women talking English at one of the tables, and discovered they were Canadian!  Furthermore, they were on a group tour and we got speaking with the guide, also Canadian! As it turns out she has written “My Camino”… They were all lovely, and we had a wonderful stop.

Sooo, I arrived at our Albergue and proceeded to google the name of the woman who was leading the group ( names are not that important on the Camino, and you often don’t ask until the second + meeting)…. Anyway it turns out it was Sue Kenny!(the person immediately to the left of Dan)… Not only is she a Canadian best selling author but, stranger than fiction, we had been introduced to her much earlier by a Spanish woman who had stopped us to give us a short cut. (This was about 2 or 3 weeks ago) When she found out we were Canadian, she immediately asked us if we knew Sue Kenny… And that she had met Sue years ago and they still keep in touch via email…totally Bizarre!!!  The other wonderful thing about this chance meeting was that Sue (now that I know her name!) told us that only light the botafumiero at the cathedral in Santiago on high holidays, or when someone’s pays €700!!! The good news it that this weekend is a high holiday… I think she said San Cristo… And that they will be at the mass on Friday and hopefully see the incense swing… She said that she times her annual walking tours around this weekend because of this holiday!!!!

Anyway, back to the rest of our day…for the first time in weeks, the weather was overcast, and much cooler (high of 14)…excellent for walking, especially when doing the climb we were doing!

  

Dan and I wanted these concrete people, but alas with 600 metres vertical to climb we decided to pass!

Our early start put us in La Faba around 12:15… Time for a little lunch and a drink… As well as see Dan do his pirate impression for Lisa!

We then headed over to the Albergue which is run by German volunteers… Incredible location.. Very pastoral, and a great and well run facility!

After showers and a a quick laundry (only a couple of essentials as the weather has turned a little drizzley) we all had a little rest, and I did some blogging… But we were all chilled and decided to come into the kitchen for some hot tea (we were greeted with this when we arrived)… And what should greet us but a roaring fire, a warm room and a woman playing a guitar… Warms the body and soul!

Here is our haven in La Faba… With beautiful views of the mountains and valley…

Since there’s no wifi, I’ll cut this short and send this off… Tomorrow is another big climb (about 400 metres) to O’Cebriero  then down 600 metres to Triacastela… Off to dinner and to carbo load!!!

Until tomorrow!