We left Villafranca yesterday morning on a steady 12.5 mile uphill climb towards O’Cebreiro. Villafranca sits at about 1800 ft., just at the base of the mountain. It is a beautiful medieval city with the feel of an Alpine village. Although the path mostly followed along a highway, we were deep in a valley with steep forested walls on both sides. We gained more than 900 feet in ascent, but we knew that the biggest climb awaited us today. We spent last night in Las Herrerias so that we could start today’s hike early in the day with fresh legs and a good plan to reach the 4950 ft. summit in O’Cebreiro.
Our plan to tackle the 4-5 mile trek up to O’Cebreiro was this: Carrie would ride on horseback and I would follow on foot. In Las Herrerias we met Victor, who takes small groups of three or four on horseback up the same steep trail that the hikers use. So while Carrie and three other women rode their horses up the mountain I walked the trail with Jimmy, a gregarious Dublin man, who serenaded me and other hikers with Irish ballads all along the way. It was great to have his company and it made the arduous walk much more enjoyable.
In O’Cebreiro we were surrounded by great views in all directions.
We went to evening mass at one of the oldest churches on the Camino. The mass was in Spanish, but at the end the priest invited all pilgrims, about 40 in all, to come up and gather around the altar. He then asked what nationalities were present. He was amazing in that he spoke some words of all the different languages represented there. He asked that someone from each nation read out loud a short special prayer in their native tongue from his prayer book. It seems that Carrie and I were about the only ones that spoke English in this group, so I got to do the reading. It was fun! After that the priest asked us all to consider why we were walking the Camino and handed us each a small stone with a yellow arrow painted on it to remind us of our direction on both the Camino and in life.
Digital Postcards 