So today was another day walking through the mountains. We are now in Galicia, and visited the oldest church on the Camino (9thC). The church was quiet and serene with a bookshelf of bibles in different languages.
We had our steepest (but shortest) ascent to the highest point to Alto do Poio (1,335m).
We are in very traditional country with farm practices dating back centuries. The farm houses still keep their animals on the ground floor and live above them. Yep. It is smelly. Loathesomely so. You can see the livestock housed in their stalls. We passed one farm where the cows were all eating their breakfast, tied up in their stalls, in rows, each with a bell around its neck. Each bell sounded at a different range and so every mouthful chimed a tune. Confined in the stable, the music was amplified. So beautiful. It will stay with me as the sound of the Camino. And then I met the Mountain dog. A dog the size of a Great Dane but built like a fat Labrador!
We didn’t make it to our destination. All booked out, and I had decided I needed a proper rest. We decided to stop short of Triacasetela. Instead we found a little private room where will we camp for two days of rest. A toilet and shower of our very own. (Communal showers and toilets lose their appeal pretty quickly! Oh, and dorms mostly occupied by men have a distinctive odor that I long to forget😅)
So we are staying here for two days. We hung out in a new flock for dinner – a flock of Europeans. Lovely evening.
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