Camino Day Thirty- Villafranca del Bierzo to O Cebreiro (18.5 Miles)

Today we power walked for four hours. It was relatively flat for twelve miles along the road and we pushed ourselves to do three miles an hour. That meant we made no stops- there would be a picture of a closed village church. We walked along a river all day- the last one was the meandering Valcarce.

After a great, healthy lunch of smoothies and avocado and tomato sandwiches we started the three and a half miles straight up to O Cebreiro, a magical hamlet at the top of the mountains that starts the region of Galicia. It is here that Father Don Elias Valina Sampedro lived and is buried. He rediscovered the Camino de Santiago and helped map out the ancient route, thus preserving O Cebreiro’s heritage.

The hike up the hill was very difficult: maybe it was the rocky trail and the steepness of the trail; maybe it was the 12 miles before we got to this part of the trail; or maybe it was just Day 30 on the Camino. John encouraged Chris up the hill. Chris encouraged John up the hill. Together they happily crested the hill and entered this magical hamlet.