The forecast was grim, but we hoped to make it to the top of the pass before the rain arrived. As it turned out, we almost made it to the destination before we needed to impersonate road cones. The pass was an interesting climb – 329 metres over 3.5 km ( about 1,000 feet in slightly over 2 miles for the luddites). The path was a very old trail between villages, likely designed for horses and carts judging by the effort taken to cut through some rock outcrops. The forest was quite beautiful even if the path was gnarly, and the view from the top rewarding!
On the Galician side, clearly there is a public works budget for Camino maintenance, as weed whacking was in evidence for the remainder of the day, as were regular concrete pylons reminding us how far we had to go. These were also on the uphill side, just less regularly, and the curious observation that the stone pylon at the bottom read almost the same as the one at the top (although I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to carry a large concrete block down a steep and rugged path!)
The villages continue to amaze with the craftsmanship of the old buildings – even the ones falling into disrepair are still stunning.
Somewhere along the way today I think I passed the 5,000 km of caminos. They say you need 10,000 hours to become proficient at something, so if I’ve been walking at 5 km/h, then I’ve only got another 45,000 km to go to pass that threshold.
2saunter 