We had a bit of a sleep in today because we thought there was a communal breakfast at 6:30. We were wrong! All of our friends left early nevertheless we still started our day in the dark. And I still had a problem with my hip and lower back but so far this only bothered me on the down hills! Today was predominantly uphill. Last time this is where we were caught in a heat wave and my beloved almost expired from heat exhaustion. My foot was then in agony and we had spent the night in Albergue Leo and it was hot hot hot.

Today was cold. It was so cold I had my woollen jumper on and my coat. My hands were freezing but I was too lazy to dig around for my gloves in the dark. We thought a Korean lady had taken a wrong turn and my beloved whistled her back to no avail. As it turned out she was taking the hypotenuse – we were going the scenic route. Damn – how on earth did we miss that?

The positive was that we managed to see some beautiful scenery, including some gorgeous old buildings in beautiful settings, and, we managed to see a heap of fruit pickers out in the vineyards getting the grapes ready for our wine!

We passed through Vila Franca de Bierzo and saw the young ones hanging out at the edge of town. The Korean lady ended up following us through the village. Yep you guessed it – she was actually slower than me!

As we headed out of town and up the highway, where I had dreamt of sinking my feet in the water last time, I hit play on my iPhone and turned the E10 speaker on in the pocket of my backpack. Suddenly my feet started moving in time with the rhythm! It was uphill anyway and the ibuprofen was doing its thing so I started moving to Ballroom Blitz and Devil Gate Drive!

The music kept coming and I kept moving up that hill surprising no one more than myself. We rested briefly then passed through Trabadalo and on to Vega del Varce. We tried to find a nice albergue but failed to secure bottom bunks. We headed back to the Municipal that I had first refused because it was about 50metres up a hill! Well I’d just walked almost 27kms hadn’t I?

We headed up there anyway and there were the singing Germans, the Rose amongst thorns and a heap of other familiar faces. The Italians were cooking again!

The Hospitalario had gone for siesta but there was a note to pick a bed and he’d see us when we got back. Unfortunately the only dormitory open had only top bunks left so we hovered around and charged our phones and hoped he’d assist us. When he finally came in we were given the keys to a dorm around the other side and we were the only two in it! Woo hoo – the honeymoon suite!

We went to the supermercado and bought some ingredients for spaghetti bol and my beloved took charge of the kitchen while I had a beer and relaxed down at the bar. Excellent role change for once!

After dinner we sat on the back step of our suite and sipped our wine and slept well ready to start our walk up to O’Cebreiro with the singing Germans and the Rose amongst thorns on the morrow.

Buenes noches