When we woke up this morning, the sun was glinting through the trees! After last night’s 50kph wind and rain, a glimmer of hope for the day! But the sun was soon shrouded behind clouds and mist and rain once again and we went back to bed for a bit.

By the time we decided that we couldn’t sit the weather out all day, it was 10am and we went for breakfast, packed up, sorted the bikes out and headed out in search of a shop in the drizzle. When we got to the shops, it was pouring down again and after getting supplies, we sat under the awning of the bakery and ate chocolate biscuits with jam waiting for the weather to improve.

At midday the downpour lessened to just rain and we set off in our waterproofs to sweat up the hill. We were leaving the valley we spent the day in yesterday to head into the mountains. We had 900m of climbing to do over 20km and Dave was worried that we’d need all day on it like when we were in the Picos. But as we started the climb, we were doing around 10kph… was the tough bit still to come?

We rode up out of town, past the usual mix of nice houses and semi-ruins, all with veggie patches and a few chickens – and lots of grape vines in this region! The clouds were lifting slightly and we could see the green valley below, Spanish villages stretched out on the north side of the river, Portuguese ones on the south side.

As we left the outskirts of town, the rain stopped and we took off our jackets and steamed under the dripping trees. The forest was lush and green, a mixture of conifers and deciduous trees with lots of oaks, their newly opened leaves bright and wet. We rode gently up between the trunks, across babbling streams, past rocky outcrops, purple heather and flowering gorse. The higher we got, the more spectacular the views of the valleys and of the clouds. The ever-changing weather gave us views of mountain peaks, then hid them from us, rained for a bit before bringing them back into view. There were lots of wind turbines on the hills, occasional villages, some small fields of sheep, areas of burned hillside and quite a few power lines. Not exactly wilderness but it was very beautiful.

At one viewpoint, we could see lots of barren hillsides stretched out below, nothing but heather and gorse except for the trees in the v-shaped valleys along the streams. The sun came out for a little bit and felt deliciously warm. Then the wind brought more clouds and wet set off again to warm up.

There wasn’t much traffic today but there were a lot of goats! There was a herder at work gathering his flock and they were spilling out onto the road. We inadvertently herded them ourselves as we rode past.

We really enjoyed the ride today, it was chilled out and the weather was pretty decent compared to how it has been! We only did 20km in the end and it didn’t take as long as we expected, but the next campsite is a long way away, so we pitched up in Lamas de Mouro for the night, just within the boundary of the national park, where we’re going to be riding for the next few days. It rained on and off this evening (pretty sure we’re going to be putting on still-wet laundry in the morning!) but it’s stopped for now and the forecast for tomorrow looks brighter.

– Anna

I decided to try and get a bit arty with the rain shots outside the hostel this morning since I have so much to practice on.

We headed southeast out of town on the PO-510. We hadn’t been on a PO road before, and we assumed it would be pretty quiet. It turns out that PO roads are not always quiet but they are relatively badly maintained. When it turned out there was no hard shoulder to ride on, Anna resorted to riding in the gutter. She is convinced that to ride on the road means death.

We stopped for lunch in a town called Salceda, where I was tempted once more by a massive empanada. I hope they have empanada in Portugal!

We went past a quarry where they had quarried out all the earth except the bits around the telegraph poles, which were proudly standing even taller than usual on the devastated landscape. It was comical. Not the devastation obviously.

The roads were even more broom-endowed than usual. The rain was on-off and everything smelled amazing in between showers. It was a really lovely ride except the constant threat of saturation, either frown rain or sweat-filled waterproofs.

We did a bit of climbing and eventually found ourselves on a ridge looking down into the valley of the River Mino, which forms the Spain / Portugal border. And what did we see on the Portugal side? SUNSHINE!!!!

We whizzed down the valley and headed towards the town of Arbo, the last one before the border. On the way we went past loads of crosses at the side of the road that looked like memorials, with people’s names on them. There was also a little fenced off graveyard bit, along with a tiny coffin. Were were a bit confused at the time; it turns out it’s part of a protest against a new high-voltage electricity line that will pass through the area.

We went through Arbo pretty quickly, keen to get into Portugal, where we assumed it would be sunny and hot. The River Mino did not encourage us though, it looks like there could be several small villages submerged under it’s swollen course right now! And sadly the rain did not stop at the border. Boo!

The campsite was just over the border. Anna navigated us there like a pro, sadly it was all for naught as they are shut until the 9th May. Doh! The chaps there directed us to the youth hostel, which was a 20 minute ride away up another rainy hill. When we got here we thought it was a hotel, but sure enough we have been given our own 4-bed dorm, and hopefully no-one else will turn up so right now things are looking good. It was twice the price of the Camino hostels, but if we get a snore-free sleep tonight it will be worth it!

– Dave

The hostel last night was busy as usual and the little room we were in had about 20 people sleeping in it.  The problem last night was that about 5 of those people were heavy snorers!  So after getting to sleep late because we were next to the kitchen which was full of chattering Italians until midnight, I woke to the pre-dawn snoring chorus at 4am and never got back to sleep.  At 6am I resigned myself to getting up early and packed up and got breakfast ready for when Dave grumpily dragged himself out of bed (after I shone a torch in his general direction during the packing up operation – oops!).

So having ridden in the rain all day yesterday and listened to the rain all night, we breakfasted watching the rain outside before we had to go out in it.

We had a nice ride to do today but the weather was absolutely rank.  Dave was still grumpy despite the quiet roads I was navigating us on and rode straight past a junction where we were supposed to turn off.  My shouts and rings were carried off on the wind and I made a little news video whilst I waited for him to return (slightly more grumpy for his extra little jaunt).

It was a lovely road up through the forest and we rode slowly uphill, getting wetter and wetter and wetter.  There was no traffic though, and the forest smelled lovely.  Some parked trucks had sprigs of flowering broom on them.  We’ve seen quite a few of these on houses, shops and vehicles, but haven’t yet found out why it’s customary.

After our long uphill, we whizzed all the way down again, wearing down our new brake pads.

Then our 15km on the lovely quiet roads came to and end and we rejoined the N-550 towards O Porrino, still in the pissing rain.  There wasn’t that much traffic, but the wet roads always make passing vehicles louder and less pleasant.

We stopped for first lunch in a bus shelter by the roadside, had cheese sandwiches and some banter, which seemed to lift Dave’s mood.  After food, we had to put our soggy gloves and hats back on before setting off – elch!

Then we were riding along the coast, and I think the views were nice…

Then there was more up and down, more rain, more rain and more rain until we arrived in O Porrino and found the hostel there… which didn’t open for another 3 hours.  Stupid early start.  But we decided to make good use of our time and had second lunch before heading off in search of a launderette.

We asked a local lady for directions.  She didn’t know, but she asked someone else, before walking with us as far as she knew, then asked someone else for us and walking with us a bit more, then offering to walk us the rest of the way!  But we just asked to be pointed in the right direction and thanked her for her trouble.  How nice!  Definitely wouldn’t get that sort of service in London!  Of course, having denied her further help, we then had to ask two more people on the next street for further direction, but we did find it!  Oh, and it was a glorious launderette.  We’ve been doing laundry by hand when it’s sunny and suffering when it isn’t.  Even the hostels that have washing machines tend to have ones that make your clothes smell worse than if they hadn’t been washed!  So we stuck everything in except what we had on and waited for it all to be washed and dried.

Whilst we were in the launderette, the sun had the cheek to come out from behind the clouds!  Thankfully it stayed out long enough for us to get back to the hostel, where we checked in, showered, had third lunch and cleaned the bikes.  Then it was time to find a bar for drinks and some wifi – what an afternoon of luxury post-ride!  Ahh.

Tomorrow we head east and enter Portugal!  Then it’s into the mountains we go…. here’s to some better weather….

– Anna

Today has been a busy day! We were chatting to a guy in the hostel last night and he recommended that we follow the Camino Portugues down into Portugal. It sounded like a good idea so we decided to go for it. Before leaving Santiago this morning however we had some tasks to complete. The first thing for me was a wet ride to the Decathlon outdoors store to get some waterproof hiking shoes. I’ve had enough of Anna complaining that her feet are too hot while mine have gone numb from cold and wrinkly from water ingress! The second task was a bit sad, we decided to send our climbing gear home. It was awesome being able to go climbing with Silvia and Carlos that first week, but it’s so heavy and it’s just dead weight most of the time. So Anna went in to do battle with the Spanish postal system for half an hour while I hung around outside reading. Seemed fair!

We finally got out of Santiago about 12. It was raining obviously.

We were glad to be back on the road and feeling like we were getting somewhere, but the weather is meant to be awful all week and it was a tough re-introduction! Sideways rain to the face all morning! But my feet were so warm and dry! I even managed to devise a system to stop the raining running off my waterproof trousers into my shoes. Happy days – Galicia holds no fears for me now.

We headed up and down over hill and vale for most of the afternoon, stopping for drippy first lunch in a churchyard and drippy second lunch in a “picnic area” by the side of the road that contained only a bin. No benches or anything. It was the worst picnic area. Anna was displeased.

Sometime in the afternoon I heard a horrible crunching noise from the back wheel. I pulled over to find that one of the bungee cords securing the tent to my pannier rack had caught a spoke and got dragged into the back gears. Thankfully the bungee cord snapped before it damaged the gears, and I escaped with a bent mudguard. That could have been a lot worse!

We were on the main road for the rest of the afternoon until we reached Pontevedre. There was an impressive viaduct, and the road cuttings were full of flowering broom, which helped to keep our spirits up.

We hadn’t really researched hostels in Pontevedra. This is always an error. You think you’ll just find one when you turn up, then by the time you get there you’re starving and tired and just want to have a shower and some food. So we spent 20 minutes looking for a hostel all the way through town and out the other side. Then just when things were looking bleak we asked a local guy who said “Yes, there’s one just behind you”. And there was, hurrah! We missed it because the signs were for people coming into town, not out.

So the day ended happily with hot showers, tasty pasta and an evening stroll into town where we procured food for tomorrow including pic’n’mix. Mmmmmm! Pontevedro seems like a really cool town, bustling and lively and with some pretty architecture. It’s a shame we didn’t get to explore it more, but that seems to be the way at the moment. Maybe we need to budget time for seeing places instead of just getting to them…

– Dave

We decided to spend our two days in Santiago doing one day of chores and one day of sightseeing, but it didn’t quite end up working out that way. Our chore day yesterday went pretty well and, among other things, we replaced all the brake blocks on the bikes because we’d worn them clean through coming down those mountains in the rain!

We also reorganised our kit yesterday and decided to send the 9 kg of climbing gear home.  Dave has been lugging it around and although we’re both chuffed that we used it with Carlos and Silvia, we decided that enough is enough and it’s going back.  Dave has a bit of a swollen ankle, so it’s probably for the best!  Hopefully his ankle will get better and will be the only injury of the trip.  I thought I was getting a horrible disease of the hands a few days ago but it’s just chilblains, which are almost healed now – need to make sure I put my gloves on when zooming downhill!

Today we wanted to go to the shops to stock up on food and Dave wanted to replace his shoes. But alas, it was May Day festivos and everything was closed except the bakeries! So we bought some bread and cheese, had first lunch and did some route planning before heading to the cathedral.

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful city, although we’ve heard (and seen!) that it is one of the rainiest in Europe. The old centre of town has wonderful stone buildings and spires and fountains, as well as thousands and thousands of tourists, even on a festivos day!

In the cathedral we looked at the big incense burner, golden altar, giant organ, shrines, confession boxes and the large queue of people waiting to hug the apostle.  The huge incense burner sometimes gets swung by its huge rope, almost to the ceiling at either end of the church, it’s quite a spectacle.  Apparently it was originally done to mask the scent of the camino pilgrims, it is now done primarily as a tourist attraction.  We missed it swinging today, but met someone who had filmed it and watched his footage that was complete with the sound of children squealing in a mixture of fear and delight at the burner whizzing over their heads!

This evening, we headed back to the hostel for dinner (more bread and cheese) and evening hangouts with the other hostel inmates.  Our route for the next week has been under debate, but we’ve heard that the Portuguese route of the Camino trail south of here is beautiful and cycle-friendly, so we may go south for a few days before we head inland towards the Faia Brava Reserve, where we should arrive in about a week.

– Anna

Once again we slept past everyone else in the hostel. These pilgrims are a dedicated bunch, up with the lark. We had breakfast and headed off knowing we had a pretty easy ride to Santiago ahead of us, and we had accommodation booked in, a rare sense of planned-ness which wasn’t altogether welcome as it took away a bit of the mystery about the day. Will we get mauled by wild boar or washed away by a flooding river? These are the things that give the spice to life!

We headed straight into a sunny morning and a long downhill section, it feels great to get the first kilometre under your wheels without pedalling! We were soon paying for it by climbing back up the other side of the valley, which warmed us up nicely.

We were on a main road for most of the day and the traffic was relatively heavy, which was ideal for instigating our regular mid-morning road position argument, but thankfully it was relatively short-lived today and by first lunch all was well with the world. We rolled along enjoying the flowering plants and shrubs that crowded the roadside.

The distances to Santiago on the road signs were becoming tantalizingly small; I was excited by 33 km, but Anna only got the bug at 19 km out.

When we got close to the outskirts of town we tried to find a minor road route in, but after a few hundred metres of beautiful country lane (and the most insanely steep hill we have encountered thus far) we found ourselves back on the main road, so we accepted it and bumped into town alongside the lorries. The town centre it didn’t disappoint. We needed to find a bike shop and the search took us through beautiful steep narrow lanes with old buildings on either side bristling with shop signs selling everything you can think of. We found the bike shop with its penny-farthing sign outside only to find that is was, of course, closed for lunch. So we went off to find the hostel.

We searched around the area we knew the hostel to be for a good 20 minutes. There were roadworks going on, and a JCB-mounted pneumatic drill was hammering away in the street, which made it a bit hard to concentrate. It turned out the hostel was behind a small, unobtrusive door right by the epicentre of the seismic activity. With some trepidation we went in, making sure to find out what time the roadworks start and finish. We decided 8 am – 6 pm was ok so we presented our passports and booked in.

Upstairs we got chatting to a German guy called Martin who had walked the French route of the Camino from St Jean Pied de Port in France, a distance of 850km! After having a day off he had decided to cycle home to Germany, so he wanted to go to the bike shop to to buy a bike. We decided to head there together after lunch and in the meantime showed him how our panniers worked and tried to think of things he would need to think about.

At the bike shop Martin mananged to get a bike, panniers, a multitool, a drinks bottle and some other kit, as well as an all-important Camino cycle jersey all for €850. A bargain; we felt we had done badly at €28.50 for 8 brake pads and a mirror!

Martin’s friend Nils met us at the bike shop and then we went on to meet some of the others guys they had met on the walk outside a café for beers in the glorious afternoon sunshine. They were a great bunch, and it was nice to see them all chatting and swapping stories about their experience. It was interesting that hardly any of them seemed to be doing the Camino for “religious” reasons, but I would say they all seemed to get something spiritual out of it. They were all keen on going to the Mass at the cathedral but it seems that the massive swinging incense burner is the big draw rather than redemption.

We met a guy called Anton who comes from the Velebit area of Croatia, which is where one of the Rewilding projects is based. We were asking about the area and its culture and he confirmed that it is very beautiful and we should definitely go! We were asking about the history of Croatia and that included the independence and civil war era, which was 1991-1994. He is 38, so he was a young teenager during the war. He said his parents lived in the South, which was in the warzone, and he and his twin sister were sent North to Zagreb, which was a more stable area. It is so strange to hear those kind of stories from people who seem so similar to me. It sounds like (and is) a massive cliché but it does make you realise how lucky you are, and that your problems are really not that big a deal! Anton’s parents have passed away now (although not as a result of the war), and he walked the Camino partly because his Dad had done it. I didn’t want to pry any further but I was glad for him as it seemed like he had just completed something important – it was a good time to meet him!

Some of the group were heading home that evening, so there were 5 of us left who decided to go to dinner. It was a good chance to hear more stories from the walkers. Jean-Philippe had slept in a donation-based hostel where Martin had stopped for a coffee but then declined to drink it due to hygiene concerns. There were some pictures and it looked pretty basic, but that is one of the things I’ve been realizing on this trip. You don’t need to wash your hands every five seconds, and a grubby glass probably won’t kill you! Anyway JP was happy with his night’s sleep, and delighted the hosts made them coffee in the morning!

The main thing everyone seemed to agree on was that you have to walk your own Camino in your own way and for your own reasons. Everyone nodded sagely at this, and I could only nod along in incomprehension. I think it must be like Vietnam; if you weren’t there you just don’t know!

– Dave

This morning it wasn’t raining (hooray!), but it was overcast and the air was still, which is ideal for riding. We slept in past everyone else getting up and leaving the hostel, so we had a quiet breakfast then packed up and got on the road by about 9:30am. It was still cool as we rode down the steep hill out of town, but perfect temperature for riding uphill again after crossing the river. On the way up, we saw two Camino walkers waving at us to pull over so we inched our way towards them uphill in granny gear and said hello. They were lost and didn’t know where to pick up the Camino trail. We were sorry not to be able to help them, but said that if we saw the trail up ahead, we’d shout. As we continued on up and around the corner, there was a trail sign, so I went down the hill (a tiny bit, but still more than I wanted to!) and gave them a cheery shout and a wave and they headed on up.

For some reason, Dave and I were both a bit shitty with each other all morning in spite of the ideal weather, cheery walkers and gentle ups and downs. I had been getting gradually more annoyed over the last two weeks with Dave’s road position and it all came to a head this morning when he continued to refuse to use the hard shoulder. Every time we stopped, we argued about it over chocolate biscuits then continued riding, still angry. The only benefit was that my legs appear to be anger-fuelled and we made amazing progress!

Thankfully the mood improved after first lunch and we were enjoying ourselves again. The sun was making the odd break through the clouds, we had been going alongside the Camino trail all day, greeting walkers with rings and toots and shouts of ‘Buen Camino’ once again.

After a delightful 10km on a tiny quiet country road, we joined the main (ish) road again and found it to be quite busy! Luckily the hard shoulder was a bit bigger and in better condition, so we uitilised it as cars and lorries zoomed by at 100 km/h.

We had vaguely planned to stop in Melide today but we’d only done 40km by then, so went to the grocer instead to stock up for dinner and continued on – down a hill, across a river and back uphill again, as we’d done all day. It was a good amount of up and down though and we did pretty well, arriving at a hostel in the afternoon with 50km under our belts and another 50km to do tomorrow to reach Santiago.

The hostel is modern and fairly busy, has amazing showers and washing machines (double luxury!), but for 20 Euros for both of us, we’re better off at a campsite. Once we get past Santiago, there should be more campsites and fewer Camino hostels again.

After chores were done and snacks had been eaten, we wandered around the tiny village. It’s a typical Spanish village, some places beautifully maintained, others crumbling down, and every inhabited house has veggies growing in the garden and chickens clucking around. There are dogs lounging around in the streets and some fields grazed by lazy-looking cows. What’s new for us today is that there are loads of strange mini buildings on stilts in people’s gardens around here. Dave thought they were chicken sheds and I laughed off the idea, but it turns out to be true! The famous elaborate chicken houses of Galicia. Well what do you know…

– Anna

We woke up in our hostel dorm to find the room was freezing cold. Our single dorm-mate reckoned this was to make sure we got out early, although it didn’t make me any keener to get out of bed! After a shivery breakfast we headed out into the day to find it was raining (obviously) and there was also a heavy mist – you could only see about 20 m.

We set off to find that we were at the top of a 7 km descent at about 7% – great fun usually but not when you have freezing rain battering into you at 50 kph! Halfway down a shadow appeared from the gloom, which resolved itself to be one out our Czech friends from yesterday, carefully negotiating the descent. We whizzed past, managing to muster a cheery “Buenos dias” as we went. He didn’t seem full of joie de vivre but who could blame him!

We were still on the Camino trail for a while so we passed a few pedestrian pilgrims, who still somehow manage a smile and a “Buen Camino” even when they’re soaked through. We dropped several hundred metres in altitude over about half an hour, then had to stop for a restorative apple pastry and re-adjustment of waterproofing. A couple we had passed on the road just before wandered up, announcing they had gone the wrong way. I was more concerned that the guy was wearing shorts and trainers and the lady was wearing open toed sandals and clearly at risk of frostbite, but they seemed happy enough and we chatted away under the bus shelter for a few minutes before they continued on the path of righteousness.

Anna and I headed off too, and soon found ourselves in Samos admiring the Benedictine monastery of San Xulián de Samos while munching salted, deep fried sweetcorn (great calorie to weight ratio!) under a thoughtfully provided shelter by the river. It was still raining.

We pushed on through the morning and arrived in Sarria, the major town in the region in the early afternoon. We decided to treat ourselves to an inside lunch since we were soaked and cold, but we chose poorly. Back on the street after a very disappointing hamburger we were forced to seek out a bakery that provided us with a massive empanada. Aaaah, that’s better! It actually stopped raining for a bit.

Heading out of Sarria we ran into some more hills. The intermittent freezing rain made temperature control very difficult. My hands were still freezing cold in my soaking wet, wind-permeable “waterproof” Sealskinz gloves (anti-plug there!), although my toe warmers were keeping the wind off and the accumulated water in my shoes had finally started to warm up from the empanada-fuelled blood flow. Anna was wearing gore-tex shoes and kept complaining she was too hot. Poor Anna. But at last, a ray of hope. The rain stopped and the sun started to make cheeky little appearances from behind the clouds. It is absolutely amazing what a difference it makes to your day when the sun comes out in these conditions. Suddenly we thought we might survive the day.

We were getting tired and were hoping to find a hostel in the village of Paradela, but alas, when I asked some guys outside a bar (all in Spanish, very proud of myself), they said  there was nothing till the next town, Portomarin. They reassured us it was all downhill and we would be there in 20 minutes, but after our last experience, Anna was sceptical. For the first kilometre out of town it looked like she was right, and she wasn’t shy about saying so, but after that we hit a glorious steep winding downhill section that would make for awesome race footage. We went whizzing down in the sunshine, all thoughts of coldness (and photos sadly) forgotten, and popped out by the huge many-armed lake where Portomarin nestles. We made our way round the lake and came to the bridge that leads into town. From an adjoining road came a few tens of pilgrims making it into town as well after an exhausting day’s walk. Their path was separate to ours for most of the day and I realised that I’d quite missed them!

We crossed the bridge and started up the hill to town. There was an awesome mural on the wall of the public baths, and a great view of the lake. After taking a couple of photos, where I became genuinely angry with a motorist for daring to enter the frame at the wrong moment I went to set off on my bike and unceremoniously fell over into the road, where I lay cackling like an idiot. Realised I was a bit tired at this point.

We went round town looking for a hostel for less that €10 so we could stick to our budget for the day. That went out the window though when Anna found we could have a sweet private room and access to washing and drying facilities and bike storage in the Portosantiago hostel for €30. After conducting the usual shower (oh my god, how good!), clothes wash and shopping we had a quick (late) siesta before prepping tasty stew and enjoying with a bottle of Rioja from “Spain’s best vineyard 2011” we picked up at the supermarket for €2.70. All is right with the world again! Bring on tomorrow! Buenos noches!

– Dave

It didn’t stop raining all night last night! But we were dry in the tent and I used earplugs to get a good night’s sleep in spite of the hammering rain. When we started packing up inside the tent at 7am, the rain stopped, there were hints of blue sky and we were able to break camp and set off in lovely conditions.

As we rode out of the campsite through the village, the mist was rising off the cloud-shrouded hills around the valley, and the colours were wonderful after the rain. Fields of poppies all bright red, bobbing their heads under the weight of the water on them. We headed back to the road, the N-VI that has been serving us well for the last few days. Today, as yesterday, we were taking the N-VI alongside the new (and huge) A6 motorway. Neither road was very busy, but thankfully most of the traffic was on the A6 and we had the N-VI mostly to ourselves again.

The sun and the clouds were with us all along the N-VI as we headed gradually uphill, north up the valley. When we were on the same route as the famous Camino de Santiago, we saw loads of hikers and greeted each other with the customary ‘Hola! Buen Camino!’. When we stopped for first lunch at a picnic spot in a little town, we chatted to a Dutch lady who’d cycled from home to do the Camino de Santiago.

Then we continued uphill, steeper now, criss-crossing the A6, under or over as the weather was getting steadily worse. A cold wind was blowing and the rain came and went. The phrase of the day was ‘Oh look, it’s raining over there!’, then it’d rain over here for a bit, too.

We crossed the county boundary into Galicia [pronounced Galithia], a country renowned for its lush green hills, good farming and lots of rain!  So of course it was raining as we entered the county.

When we finally made it to point at which we were going to leave the N-VI, we were already tired and it was raining quite hard. We stopped for a chilly second lunch then carried on up and up and up.

We met a few other cyclists on the way, all with quite a bit less luggage than us but we were all having just as tough a time going up the mountain.  A friendly Czech guy took a picture of us at a viewpoint.

When we finally made it to the top of the pass, we thought we were going to get to go down for a while, but ended up going straight back up again!

It seems like we had been going for hours uphill in the rain this afternoon, but we’ve hardly gone any distance since we left the N-VI! When we’d one 50km for the day, we came to the top of a hill in the rain and saw a hostel, so decided to call it a day. We finished the day 850 meters higher than we started but the total climbing was more as we went down quite a bit too!

The hostel is far from the best accommodation – it boasts the world’s worst showers! But alas, we are clean and warm and dry and full of delicious home-made lamb stew and sweet tea from the bar! There are a few locals chatting noisily in Spanish and one Camino walker kindly talking to us in English.  He did the same distance as us today but without wheels!

– Anna

We thought we were in for rain all day today and we were knackered so we set the alarm for 9 to make the most of our luxury two star hotel. I was worried we might have to check out by 10, but Anna pointed out that was unlikely since nothing opens here till 11. Fair point, and so it proved.

When we woke up sure enough it was still raining! We had breakfast (muesli with powdered milk) in bed then reluctantly started getting ready to head out. We loaded the bikes in the underground car park and headed up the ramp to find that against all expectations the rain had stopped and the air had that beautiful clear crispness that follows a good downpour. So we set off in good spirits and superfluous full waterproofs, which had to be removed fairly rapidly.

It was a pretty, cloudy day, and the clouds made fascinating shapes against the distant mountains.

It was mid-morning on Saturday and the traffic on the motorway was a nightmare. Don’t know how we got through it.

We only had 30 km to do today to reach our campsite at Villamartin de la Abadia. There were a couple of climbs but the majority was flat or downhill and we covered the distance quickly, stopping for a quick lunch of cheese, avocado and chorizo rolls on the outskirts of Ponferrada just after crossing a beautiful river valley with a great view of the viaduct further upstream.

We got into the campsite about 12 and the weather was still good, so once we’d had a shower and hand-washed our cycle stuff we hung out in a little plaza and had some more food. Anna made the most of the afternoon sun with a quick siesta. After that we played frisbee for a bit – totally worth carrying a frisbee!

Siesta!

Once the shop opened at 5 we went and got some food for tomorrow and came back to cook dinner. The promised rain finally set in at this point, so we have just spent the last four hours stranded under the shelter at the campsite cooking, eating and chatting.

As we were packing up a lovely German couple came over with a bottle of wine and declared that they thought we would like to share it with them. Rude not to, so we had our first wine of the trip chatting about our respective travels. They have travelled a lot in Spain, and came from Santiago today – it’ll take me and Anna about 5 days to do that in the other direction! They have also been to the UK – they think the Highlands are the most beautiful area, and they are very taken with the ‘park and ride’ concept. Probably wouldn’t be on my adverts for visiting the UK, but maybe it should be! There are no photos as we were separated from our cameras by lots of falling water.

We finally made a break for the tents and I am writing this up with the rain hammering down on the fabric and knowing I’m going to have to go outside in a minute and put the cover on my leather saddle. D’oh!

– Dave