Our Accomodation at O Cebreiro was awesome some of the reviews were a little mixed but we found it great. As I said yesterday it was a really nice lunch. After that I went back to the room for a bit of a rest and ended up having a little sleep which was nice. The Pilgrims mass was on at 7:00pm so we arranged to head there at 6:45pm good thing we did as it was a full house. There were two Franciscan Monks who were running things one of them was a little older and a real character he was trying to get people to sing along with him. There were some Korean ladies who had amazing voices, standout above everyone else.
The took the Mass which was pretty much like any other mass which I have been to previously, apart from welcoming all the pilgrims. At the end of the service we were asked to stay as Pilgrims and all come to the front to receive a gift which was a stone with the Camino Yellow arrow painted on it pointing the way. So I brought a stone from Bell Block to leave on the Camino and now I will take one from the Camino home with me. It is smaller so this is a good thing. Next the Priest asked what languages there were represented amongst the pilgrims, there was Spanish, English, Dutch, German, Korean, and French that i could remember. He got someone who spoke each of those languages to come and read the blessing in their language and then he finished off afterwards it was lovely. We left the church just before 8:00pm and headed back down to our accommodation to have dinner there as the view was so good and the food was pretty good as well. We ordered our food I had Spaghetti Bolognese first course and the same chicken that I had at lunch because it was really good. And then a very small tub of ice cream for dessert. We sat around talking for some time.
There was another Aussie sitting at the table next door and we started chatting with him. He also does surf lifesaving in Australia but up at Alexander Headlands club. Bryce and Rory are both involved at Brontë Beach in Sydney as volunteer surf lifesavers. It was a funny conversation talking all about surf lifesaving and then rugby and then about the Camino and how it was all going. I decided t head off to bed as I was pretty tired and still had to organise my stuff for the next day. I had a pretty good sleep i had rolled out my hip flex’s so they didn’t keep me awake. But for whatever reason I woke about 4:00m and couldn’t really get back to sleep. Bryce got up at about 5:20am to go to the loo so I turned the light on and started to get ready for the day ahead. It was going to be a 30km day with a lot of downhill and after my quad locking up the other day I was a little worried about how it would go.
We got our stuff organised headed outside where there was supposed to be a cafe open at 6:00am but again no such luck so we decided to head off in the dark. They didn’t take bookings at the Monastery in Samos so we didn’t want to be arriving there late and miss out on a bed. We headed to the first town after O Cebreiro but there was nothing open but at the next town we found a bar/Cafe that was open with a lovely Brazilian lady serving we all ordered coffee and Empanada which had chicken, and onions, peppers and was encased in Pastry. It was good. We didn’t stop long and pushed on till about the 17km mark for some more food. What we thought was going to be all downhill had quite a lot of uphill and some very steep sections like the day before. For our next stop I had a coffee and some freshly made Spanish Omelette and it was delicious. I also had a who lot of water to make sure that I didn’t get dehydrated.
We continued down and got to Triacastela where the route splits and it was starting to get pretty warm it was up to 24degrees. It was still another 9kms to Samos we decided that we would push on to the next town and get some more food and drink, and then push on to Samos.
When we arrived there it was kind of deserted and there were no bars or cafes so we had no choice but to push on. We eventually got to Lastres and found a bar open and all got something cold to drink and rested our legs for a bit. I think it was still another 3-4 kms to Samos. The temperature was now about 27degrees and after all the cold weather we have been experiencing it felt pretty hot. We pushed on and made it to Samos by 2:00pm. We went to the Monastery and found that it had been permanently shut earlier this year. So so much for staying there, we remembered another place we had looked at just around the corner and so we went there and managed to get two rooms again this time with a shared bathroom. But there was one problem my bag was supposed to have been delivered to the monastery. I asked the lady checking us in and she said no problem it will be at the bar next door. And thankfully it was.
So we have all had showers and put some washing on and apparently we can go for a tour of the Monastery at 4:30:pm so I am going to head off for that in a moment. So I will call you it quits from there. But just to finish, everyone’s feet were pretty sore after the 30km trip today walking downhill is hard. 28.5kms tomorrow. After the shower everything feels better, I didn’t have any issues with my leg what so ever so thanks for the prayers and while my blisters were sore I think everyone was suffering so I am ok. This is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done physically especially with the pain i have experienced. But I would highly recommend it to others it is truly a life changing experience.
Nga mihi
Mike
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