Day 31

Climbing up along the yellow, mauve and white bush path the once far away mountains seemed to close in on us, as the sun painted ever changing pictures in the fading sheets of snow. As we moved up once again on very rocky paths the closer hillsides turned to mauve as the path colours varied according to the dominant plant at the time. We were joined by a Korean mum and her daughter who were getting to know each other in different ways, but the Camino (way) provided them with different reasons for walking; daughter was doing it for mum while mum’s reason was a secret. We said our goodbyes and moved up to 1500 meters, the highest point on the Camino

We did a little 1500 meter jig with a very friendly German fellow whose path we crossed intermittently down the steepest, rockiest part of the Camino and I think the most dangerous. In earlier blogs I was talking of doing a downhill shuffle, this slope was about one slow pole directed step at a time Soon our village home, Acebo appeared clinging to the hillside hanging on to life as its single street wound down the steep hill becoming one with the continuing Camino track and yes one could say it had a placebo effect on us because Corrie’s arthritic toe pain and my bruised heal ache went away as soon as we saw it. The sight of many villages along our path often provided more relief than Voltaren

We caught up with our Danish friends and agreed that last nights cracked church was definitely a highlight. We also caught up with our Finnish actor friend who was struggling earlier on but found a new lease of life with some good treatment in a village on the way, funnily enough called Hospital de Orbigo (where pilgrims of old were treated). We were very sad as we bid our heartfelt goodbyes on the streets of Acebo

We climbed up to our rooftop dwelling, the stairs as steep as the mountain we had just descended, but the price as low as the flat plains of the Meseta. Usually I’d get going with my post but our luggage had been collected by the wrong people so we had lunch and chatted with two very friendly couples from North Carolina who were walking for various reasons, one because he (like folks back home) liked to tell a good story. We agreed that a little embellishment is vital criteria for the best stories. They are moving, (uninvited!!), into our lodgings in Ponferrada tomorrow night, but we like them so that’s ok

By the way, after a lot of police work by our faithful luggage movers the bags were found after being dropped off at two wrong locations. Now I’ve got my computer and I’m ready to embellish

Coloured flowers on the mountainside

The Sun, the Artist

Preparing for downhill

Saying goodbye