We got up at 6 and were walking by 7. Here is the church in Cacabelos.
This is the river on the outside of town. 
We didn’t stop and have breakfast until we’d done over 4 miles and reached Villafranca del Bierzo. 
I thought we were going to stop in Trabadelo, but Judy said she wanted to go a town further. 
The wood was painted blue. No idea why.
I love walking during cherry season!
A lovely albergue with a pond.
This is Ambasmestas, the town right before Vega de Valcarce.
Judy is SERIOUSLY freaked out by the idea of climbing to O Cebriero. For two days I have heard how hard it’s going to be, how she’ll send her pack on, how we have to get as close as possible so we can be fresh for the climb.
Judy started in Burgos, not St. Jean, so she didn’t climb over the Pyrenees. I’m keeping quiet, but I keep thinking, “I climbed over the Pyrenees when there was two more pounds in my pack and at least ten more pounds of me. I think I’ll be fine.” But I don’t say it. I just smile and let her stress.
She kept complaining, asking why we had to go over a mountain like that, and I finally said, “Because that’s the mountain that’s there. We can’t call up God and order a different one.” The climb is tomorrow. I’ll be glad to get it over so I can stop hearing about it.
Anyway, she, like my other crew before her, doesn’t believe me when I tell her how far things are and how long it will take to reach them. My app became useless for awhile, since we were not taking the scenic route it wanted us to take but a shorter one that followed the road. Judy likes roads. I don’t. So we really had no judge of how far we’d come or how much further there was to go other than Judy’s phone.
When we got to Trabadelo we talked about lunch, but she wanted to go on to “Valcarce,” which is the name of the local river. I thought she meant “La Portela de Valcarce,” which was less than three miles or about an hour. So I agreed.
But she meant “Vega de Valcarce,” which was another three miles after that. She wouldn’t believe it was that far or that it would take us over two hours. Just like my conejitos. But we walked as long as I said and arrived when I said. (Sigh.) I gotta break in another one.
So I walked 8 hours and over 15 miles on a slice of tortilla patata, a slice of bread, a slice of marble cake, a cup of coffee, and later s croissant. No wonder I’m losing weight.
Travels and Adventures with Jane 