Bears at Altitude

Right now it would almost be true to say that we have our heads in the clouds, as we have climbed up to O Cebreiro, at 1330m, a very high and tiny mountain top village, where you feel you're on top of the world and can look down on the rest of the world.

O Cebreiro is famous for the very old (9th century) church of Santa Maria Real, where Franciscan monks offer assistance to pilgrims, and also for it's pallozas, round structures with thatched roofs.

Fortunately we didn't have to climb all day to get here, just this afternoon. The morning's walk was not one we were looking forward to. We had read, most recently, in the German comedian, Hape Kerkelling's, book about his walk along the Camino, that you were dicing with death as you walked beside a main road, with lots of sharp bends, with traffic whizzing past, just millimetres away.

Thankfully, it is very different now. A new motorway has been built to carry most of the traffic, and concrete crash barriers have been built to separate pilgrims fom the few cars that come along.







The road also follows a fast moving river and also diverts off from time to time into a series of very pretty villages. There are lots of stone churches which today, for once, were all open, and there are lots of traditional buildings, many with wooden overhanging balconies. It was very pleasing to the eye, and also fascinating to see the huge concrete stilts carrying the new motorway way over our heads.

We also came across an encouraging mile marker, with St James of course, that told us we are now a long way from Roncesvalles and not so far from Santiago ...





This afternoon we had to ascend about 500 metres in 8km. Most of it was off road on good paths and through varied terrain. We passed through a couple of small farming hamlets which thankfully offered refreshments. We had our first ice cream which was very welcome as it was very hot this afternoon. We were very impressed by the Brazilian pilgrim runner who ran past us, at speed, on one of the steeper sections.

O Cebreiro hoved into sight at just the right time as we were getting increasingly hot and tired.
We found our pre-booked room o.k. and were soon rejuvenated, especially when went outside to take in the dramatic mountain views. The slopes are all very green and fertile.

Gio had an exciting time when we went to the church to look round and get a stamp for our pilgrim passports. It was given to us by a very nice Franciscan monk who admired Gio's Franciscan t-shirt and wished all 3 of us a buen camino.

We went back to the church at 7.00 p.m. for the Mass, but sadly the Pilgrim blessing which we really like, was only given in Spanish so we efectively missed it.

Sadly no wifi this evening so far, so you may have to wait a while to read this.

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx