Day 21, September 21, La Faba to O’Cebreiro to Sarria– late post

     


This morning, everyone was up earlier than the crack of dawn, itching to get a head start and tackle this difficult climb. After a quick breakfast for sustenance, we were off. The climb was not as bad as I imagined it. Don't get me wrong, there were tough parts for sure, but I had a more difficult time going down Cizur Menor and Riego de Ambros, where I ended up nursing a tender ankle by the time I got to the bottom.  I can only hope that it's because my body has adjusted in some way and has become stronger. But mostly, I think it's because we already broke down the climb in two stages, tackling the first half or first third yesterday and the rest today. That definitely eased up the trail a lot.

   
   The rising sun kept us company all throughout the climb and every so often, we would stop to take photos. As we were walking up in one of the more challenging sections, Anj and I remembered a conversation we had the previous day when on the way to the store, I pointed to a high range of mountains across the way and said, "That's probably where we'll be walking tomorrow," which my sister adamantly denied. Haha! Guess who was right? That made us laugh for a bit. One thing we realized early on in this camino, when stumped between two paths: an easy one and a hard one, the difficult one is more likely the path that leads forward. Oh, the things we learned on this camino! 😆 Along this path is also the marker that tells us we have crossed over to Galicia and are already on the last stages of our walk.

  O’Cebreiro is the oldest church along the Camino Frances and according to legend, is the home of the miraculous Holy Grail. It is also said that back in the 1300s, while a Benedictine priest, who was an unbeliever, was celebrating the Eucharist, the Host changed into Flesh and the wine turned into blood just after he uttered the words of consecration. The Host and the chalice are on display to this day.

 From Cebreiro, we took a taxi to Sarria, the last 7-day mark to the end. We have already taken an inordinate amount of transport, certainly more than we initially planned for. It was really because, when we first made our itinerary, we didn’t factor several things such as: 1. elevation; 2. terrain; 3. our bodies response to both; and most importantly; 4. Muxia and Finisterre. But, since we started the walk, we’ve had to make more realistic adjustments. Muxia and Finisterre were added after conversations with several pilgrims at different points during the start of our walk. It wasn't that we initially didn't see the significance of these places, it was simply because we felt we did not have the time to extend our walk anymore. Thank goodness we changed our minds early enough that we were still able to make the necessary adjustments.



     The reason we were taking the taxi to Sarria now instead of later in the day is because the towns following were too small to have the service available and we definitely did not have the time for any delays. And so, like Leon, and Burgos before that, we were meeting Sarria ahead of schedule. We wrongly assumed that this would be the last transport we'd take until we get to Santiago. 

  
  










 In Sarria, we stayed in a private albergue so we could check in early and do our laundry. The albergue had a charming courtyard and the owner planted grapes that were obviously thriving. We also had a lot of time to rest, which we really appreciated. We did our laundry and walked around town for a bit. Sarria is not a very big town but there was something to explore nonetheless so we walked around until the air started to get chilly. They were preparing a bonfire for the pilgrims when we got back but we weren't feeling too social so we decided to call it an early night.