It was a very long day ... This could take a while, go get a glass of wine. I'm in O'Cebreiro after nineteen uphill miles.

There is a lot to cover including the last stone. First Villafranca. The twenty mile march here ends without any problems. I check into my Hostal. I'm on the top floor and when I get there I find a very small room with only a skylight. The room is fine. Very clean and comfortable. My issue is the laundry. After twenty miles in the sun I'm a bit ripe and dirty as is the uniform of the day. Okay I will just go back downstairs to see if they have a clothes line in the back. They don't but the guy at the front desk tells me that they can do the laurdry and have it back by eight o'clock. I'm in. Perfect, that gives me more time to chill and get the passengers taken care of. The toe was fine today because there were no major hills either up or down and the terrain was flat and good most of the way. Exactly the kind of day the Limos and passengers needed after the very difficult Cruz de Ferro day.

I get everything done and will go down to the plaza to find a pharmacy. I need more of the toe wrap. I'm changing bandages more frequently. As I am standing in front of the Hostal Tim and Agnes are walking by on there way to find their Hostal. We talk about dinner with Peter, Charlotte and Sonia and agree that we will find each other in the plaza around seven.

Peter, Charlotte and Sonia are staying at the same Hostal I'm in but have not yet arrived. I head to the plaza. I forgot how far it was from where I'm staying. It's straight down a long hill of steps and half way down I'm already dreading the walk back up. I buy what I need but it's only 5:30. I'm not going to sit here in the plaza until seven so I decide to walk back up. I was right ... It's a hike and it's mostly steps, lots of steps. By the time I get back up to the Hostal I'm feeling like I'm back on the Camino going to the Cruz de Ferro. I go into a cafe just short of the Hostal and order a glass of wine. A few minutes later Charlotte drops in and takes a seat. Peter is walking back up the hill after going to a pharmacy. His feet are having a blister attack. Peter shows up, sits and orders a beer. Two minutes later Sonia arrives. Dinner is discussed and it's unanimous, none of us want to go to the plaza and face walking back up here again. I've made up my mind that regardless of any ideas to the contrary I'm going to have dinner at the Hostal. I am not climbing the stairs again.

The food is fine and the guy who runs the Hostal could not have been nicer. He points to a tray in the corner to remind me that my laurdry is done. Everything is nice and clean and folded. It will soon be back on the Camino or stuffed into my backpack but it does look nice. There is much discussion about O'Cebeiro and the difficulty of the elevation change and it's length being ninteen miles. It's ninteen miles for me but not for them. They will all walk only to Herrerias just short of the final five miles where the elevation change will be more than twenty five hundred feet. There plan is to start on Thursday from that point and go from there. They will be at least one day behind me and if Peter's feet don't improve perhaps more than a day. 

During the conversation Sonia mentions how her daughter enjoyed the Camino and wants to come back and get her father to join her. I must have missed something so I ask Sonia when did her daughter walk the Camino? She goes on to explain that one of her twin daughters was with her for the first two weeks but had to get back to Canada because of work. I thought that she was with Peter and Charlotte from the beginning but no they met shortly after her daughter went home. Sonia goes on the explain that when her daughter left she was a little afraid of walkng alone and was fortunate to meet Peter and Chrlotte soon after and they have been walking together since. Peter says they have adopted her.

Charlotte starts to laugh and asks me if I have heard the transfer story? No, I have no idea what that means. She asks Sonia to tell me. Here's the story. 

Sonia has just started walkng daily with Peter and Charlotte and when they get to Carrion there are no hotel rooms available so her travel company books her into a Hostal about two and a half miles off the Camino. The company arranges to have a driver pick her up at a designated location in Carrion where the driver will take her to this off Camino location where she will have a room for the night. In the morning the same guy will come back to the off Camino Hostal and drive her back to Carrion where she will start the schduled walk without altering the routes or skipping any of the Camino. Makes sense.

The driver shows up at the designated location at the prearranged time. Peter and Charlotte wait with Sonia to be sure that the transfer occurs. Sonia grabs her backpack feeling a little apprehensive about getting into a car with a complete stranger in the middle of nowhere but she's convinced herself that everything will be fine. The guy pops the trunk and Sonia is about to put her backpack in when she notices that there are only two items in the trunk .... I rope and a shovel! She does not know what to do but decides she will go but asks Peter to take a photo of the license plate. So the solution is to be able to find her killer but to go anyway ! Everyone is laughing and Charlotte adds that she does not trust Peter with the camera so she memorized the license plate number which she recites to prove it. They are a good group of people who are easy to be with. They like to laugh and have a real connection to what the Camino is about. I look forward to seeing them in Santiago.

Now about the walk today to O'Cebreiro. I leave my hotel at 7:00. It's dark and it's cold, not chilly it's cold. My Hostal does not offer breakfast until 8:15 so I will just wait and get someting to eat on the Camino. The only light I'm walking with is provided by the full moon. It's a bit weird being out here in the dark but I'm not alone, I've seen several others in the plaza getting ready.

The first village is Pereje which is about four miles from where I started in Villafranca. When I get there it's like a ghost town. There is one cafe open but it just does not look all that inviting and I'm making good time so I will just keep going. The next village is Trabadelo. That puts me about seven miles from the start. I will stop and get something to eat. I see a couple of people I recognize from other points along the way. Cafe con leche and a bad version of an omelette, a water refill and I'm good to go. 

I look at my map and guide book and decide that I will stop in Herrerias which is about six miles ahead. When I get there the cafe patio is crowded so I skip it and decide to just wait until La Faba which is about another two miles. The weather is good, it's starting to warm up and I will soon make a wardrobe change before I have to face the hill. The walk from Herrerias to La Faba is much harder than I expected. I should have looked more closely because I am already on the hill. The elevation change in this short segment is up more than two hundred meters. I should have stopped because now I'm running out of water. Never a good idea. I am taking my time and stopping as often as needed. I just stop, catch my breadth and lean on my poles for a few minutes and then repeat my magic weapon and go. Spanish Potatoes on the entire climb. I actually pass several others who are working their way up the hill. It's difficult, very difficult. I never would have guessed that I would be passing others.

I reach La Faba and go into the second cafe in this tiny village. I order a Coke light. No bottled water so I will just take the tap water. I ask if they have wifi and the young guy says no but the bar back down the hill and a bit off the Camino does. There is no way I'm going backwards, wifi can wait. The cafe does have freshly squeezed juice in a bottle sitting in ice so I ask for a glass. I pour out half the water from my permanent bottle and add the juice. It does tastes better.

I leave knowing that I have only three and a half miles to go. My payoff starts because the views are spectacular and it's a perfect weather day. I take lots of photos. And then it happens. I cannot believe it but as I look up the hill a heard of cows with a bull are coming down the trail and moving very quickly right at me. I climb out of the way and then grab my phone for photos. I missed the bulk of the heard in the picture because I was to busy getting out of the way. If you read my first blog you might recall that this is exactly what happened on my first Camino. They must have been told I was back.

The walk itself was hard but not as hard as the first time I did it. It probably has something to do with walking right through O'Cebreiro the first time down the hill more than a mile and a half past the village. I will never forget that day. I was completely exhausted and when I walked into that little bar and simply asked "O'Cebriro" she just points back up the hill. I have walked right through and past the town and now must walk back up the hill adding about three miles to an already hard day !

That made the trip about twenty two miles. I was not going to make that bonehead mistake again. I reach the village and can't wait to get in the shower. My room is absolutely the worst room I've ever had anywhere on both Camino's. I don't care. It took me nine hours to get here, the room is 

secondary. I will be out of here in just a matter of hours.

I'm now in Galicia the final region of the Camino. I am less than one hundred miles from Santiago. The most difficult parts of the Camino are behind me.

Which brings me to the final stone. All of the stones which I placed at the Cruz de Ferro had one of two things in common. They represented either a blessing for those who have gone ahead of us for eternal peace or they were for a blessing related to a need for medical help. The last stone is not for either of these blessing and will be placed at the Hill of a Happiness on the last day of my Camino just before I enter Santiago.

The stone is for Walker Ford, PVT , U.S. Army who has been in training since he joined the military seven months ago. Walker's parents are friends of ours.  Walker will be deployed to Afghanistan shortly. 

So why the Hill of a Happiness? For hundreds of years it was said that as pilgrims reached this location it would be the first time they would see Santiago and thus the happiness for having achieved the goal of reaching Santiago safely. The stone I will place here represents a blessing of Walker's safe return which will of course have the same effect for his family as seeing Santiago for the first time did for the pilgrims.

So to Walker ... Thanks for your service and my God bless you and keep you safe. The Hill of Happiness. So that's it for today. It's been a long and yes difficult day but all is good. Tomorrow I will take a short walk of thirteen miles to Triacastela, mostly down hill. Tomorrow is letter A day.

SA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . Good night, Buen Camino.