Day 40 Cacabelos to Trabadelo

This morning was a slow start as breakfast was only ready at 8am. It was included in the room rate so I was not missing out.

I left Cacabelos at 9am, fortunately I had a booking in place for Trabadelo.

I have now entered the Camino stage where you have to plan a little to get a bed, especially if you leave late or plan on high mileage.

Last night I met Pete and Anne at the wine farm. They are from Chesterfield in the UK. Anne caught the bus for half the distance due to medical reasons and Pete was walking alone.

I bumped into Pete on the way out of town, we decided to walk together for a bit. It's amazing how plans change. I wanted to do the short route along the road in order to do 19km, Pete had other ideas. He walked the Camino last year and told me I had to see the views walking through vineyards. That made today's walk 21km's.

Pete was not wrong at all, the scenic walk was just stunning. One of the farmers was selling cherries and wine of course. I bought a bag of cherries and munched whilst I walked. The discussions we had were amazing. Pete is 64 and has life experience of note. We spoke about so many different things on the journey. He planted a seed for my company name, it's not something I can mention on the blog. He was clearly sent along my path for a reason. It's actually incredible what I go through on the Camino day by day.

We stopped in Villafranca Del Bierzo for coffee and some food.

It was then time to say goodbye to Pete, I cannot walk with someone for the whole day. I know this sounds strange coming from me but I need my quiet time to digest what's going on, nature has a way of helping me.

I decided to avoid the mountain to Trabadelo as I knew what lay ahead in the next 2 days. I took the path next to road via Pereje. It started getting hot, summer is on its way finally. At least I could wear short sleeves again.

I got into Pereje hot and bothered, so I ordered the biggest Kas Lemon I could find, it's my favourite drink in Spain. One of those and I am good to go again. Well not exactly, in the heat socks come off and a foot check is required, preventing blisters is better than treating them. I have a few niggles that require treatment when it's hot.

I got into Trabadelo at around 2pm and checked into El Puente Peregrino. It's a lovely Pension run by a Dutch couple and they can speak English. The biggest bonus was veggies. I enjoyed Zucchini soup for lunch, just what I needed. Then for supper I started with tomato soup and for main course I had vegetable lasagne with spinach in it. I could become a vegetarian for a month after this journey.

I took a walk down to the Valcarce river and picked a yellow flower.

I placed it in the water in Memory of Lawrence Kruger. I watched it travel downstream, a sad moment for me. RIP Lawrence, the memories of our childhood live forever.

While I was sitting in the restaurant late in the afternoon Barbara from the States walked in, we keep on bumping into each other. We had a few deep discussions about life. It is really awesome how positive people are on the Camino, I feel so motivated to start my new chapter in life.

Then Pete, his wife Anne and Sue walked in. We had supper together, rather a busy evening I guess but most enjoyable.