Day 26 - Herrerias to Fonfria - 22 km

Today was the day to climb the mountain to O'Cebreiro. Since walking uphill for several hours is never easy, I sent my bag ahead to an Albergue of a reasonable distance and started my walk. When I stopped for breakfast I realized that I only had 10€ left! I asked the owner of the cafe when I would reach the next bank and he told there would not be one until Triacastela which was 32 km away. This would be a difficult day, particularly since I was walking primarily on mountain paths. I resigned myself to the fact that I would need to walk 32 km and continued on.

The start of my assent was not as difficult as I had anticipated and I found out later this was because I had missed the mountain path and had taken the road. The road was further but with less incline and very enjoyable. After a few km I met a dog in the middle of nowhere. This dog was clearly not a stray but a well cared for hound that wore a bell and a large identification tag. He was very happy to see me and began walking beside me. I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of him but I knew this dog had a home and I was really trying to ignore him. He walked with me for several km until finally a taxi drove by and I flagged him down, pointing to the dog. The taxi driver was great and was able to return the dog to his owner. At the farming village of Laguna de Castilla I found this particular house interesting. The bottom floor is the barn and the home is above the barn. This is what I call being one with nature. It was at this town that I got onto the pilgrim mountain path and the really hard work began.

I reached O'Cebreiro by noon after much huffing and puffing and thought, "this is it, I've reached the top of the mountain and will start going down now". I, along with about 50 other pilgrims, would like to file a complaint because we did not know that we were only about half way up the mountain. We kept anticipating a decline but only went up and up and up. Here is a picture of a cool bathroom in O'Cebreiro because I am very much into bathrooms, in case you hadn't noticed by now.

Earlier in the day I had been talking with a group of pilgrims about out destination for the day. I mentioned my money dilemma and that I would be traveling to Triacastela for the bank machine. A couple of hours out of O'Cebreiro I stopped under a tree to cool off. One of the pilgrims I had spoken with earlier was sitting across the road. We said, "Hola" and then he said, "an amazing thing happened today". I laughed and said, "I have seen many amazing things, tell me about yours". He walked across the road and pulled a 20€ bill out of the wall. He said, "I found this money and now you'll be able to stop at Fonfria". I suggested that he was a very good lier and thanked him, offering to pay him back when I reached Triacastela. He would not hear of it and walked away. Thank you Paddy, because by the time I reached Fonfria I was very ready to stop!

And now for the absolute best part of today! I reached the Albergue at Fonfria and had my shower, did my laundry, same old, same old. Then, took the laundry out to dry and who was there? Benji! He'd been on the Camino with other pilgrims for the past 2 days and I got to see him again. :)