Today, with “El Jefe” Mike, we left Villafranca del Bierzo and headed upwards to O’Cebreiro. This was the last of our “double dip”days, combining the legs from Villafranca del Bierzo to Las Herrerias and from Las Herrerias to O’Cebreiro.
We stayed in a charming hotel, Puerta del Perdón, run by Dani who put our bags in our rooms, did our laundry and gave us cake for breakfast!
We had a stroll round the town last night but, being Sunday, unfortunately all the churches were closed – the 3rd picture here is yet another old building being turned into a plush hotel. Dinner was in the delightfully named Don Nacho restaurant – the portions were huge, but tasty, and a bottle of the local house red was only €5 – it was very nice and made from the Mencía grape (known as Jaen in Portugal) which is a variety native to the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. The oldest known reference to this town’s area is from the time of Bermudo I the Deacon, around the year 791, as the site of a battle between the Muslims who returned from Galicia and the Christians of the Asturian king.
We had two options for the start of today – take the easier route via the road or the more scenic, but tougher, route over the mountains. No prizes for guessing which one we took. Once we crossed the Rio Burbia the climb started with a very steep section to get the heart beating, legs pumping and lungs gasping and then eased slightly (but not too much) as we climbed about 400m in a little over 6km. It was worth it though as the views were beautiful. The high point of this section of climbing was an altitude of just over 900m.
Of course we couldn’t keep climbing, so next was the descent, quite rapid (just over 300m in 2km), down to the road that would take us into Las Herrerias (from where we would start our second climb). We passed through La Portella de Valcarce and stopped to take a look inside the Iglesia de San Juan Bautista (and of course get a stamp for our passport. On the final stretches into Las Herrerias we cross-crossed the Rio Valcarce many times.
We stopped in Las Herrerias (so small we were glad to be passing through rather than staying) for a quick drink and a muffin before attacking the last climb of the day. This would see us ascend just under 700m in about 7km. The climb was relentless, the views amazing and the sun was very hot (thankfully we had some shade on the climb up). We also moved from Castell y León into Galicia. No ice cream today but a very much deserved / needed beer after we checked in. For Paul and myself this was harder than the first days climb through the Pyrenees. For Mike this was definitely a very tough first day!
Tomorrow we head to Triacastela with only 7 more walking days left.