Day 27 - Cacabelos to Vega de Valcarce - 27km

It was raining in the morning and I was not in a hurry to leave, waiting to see if it would stop or ease up. While I was hanging about Mark, the American, asked if I wanted a bar of soap which by coincidence was something I'd run out of. He'd had to buy a packet of three bars and didn't want to carry the extra weight. Lucky me! I left about eight although it was still raining as that is the time they throw you out of albergues. The route led initially along a quiet minor road then branched off onto a dirt track which went through small villages and vineyards. It was a bit hilly in places but nothing too demanding and it was nice to be out in the countryside again despite the rain on and off.

My foot was fine (did that gel really help?) and I was looking forward to staying in a Brazilian albergue that night. Jan overtook me and we walked into Villafranca del Bierzo together, a most interesting looking place that really deserved a full day's visit but where we only stopped for a coffee. After Villafranca there is a choice of three routes, the high, strenuous, long Pradela (which Jan chose), the very long, remote and poorly marked Dragonte, and the N-VI route along the former highway (which I chose). I was really pleased with my choice as there was a yellow(!) concrete track for pilgrims alongside the road with a crash barrier to protect you from the very occasional traffic, most of which now used the new motorway. The route ran through a beautiful river gorge with towering cliffs on either side and I wondered how Jan was getting on up there - I later found he'd had second thoughts about tackling the strenuous option and was behind me on the same route.

Every now and then the path left the road to meander through little villages and back again to the road, going through splendid chestnut woods where there were huge stacks of cut timber drying off. The villages were ideal places to have little breaks, a coffee in one (very nice bar just like a pub) and sharing a cheese sandwich with a cat on a bench in another. I was still going strong when I finally reached Vega de Valcarce despite the distance I'd covered. Here I found the Brazilian albergue which I'd been looking forward to as a bit of ''home from home''.

They gave me a warm welcome but I was disappointed to find that they charged almost double the going rate for meals, so I only paid for my bunk and had a scratch evening meal by myself later on after doing some shopping in the village. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to spend the money, I could afford it after all, but I felt it was a bit of a rip-off. I have to say that they had the best showers on the entire Camino, though. In some places the showers are cold or lukewarm at best, with not much more than a trickle coming out overhead, or from a hand held spray. Then there are those with a timer, a button you have to keep pushing every few seconds as the water cuts out before it even has time to reach a decent temperature. And of course the difficulty of dressing and undressing in a wet cubicle in a mixed bathroom. Here there was a ladies toilet/bathroom with somewhere to leave your clothes outside the cubicle and lashings of nice hot water from a strong overhead spray - heaven!

It was rather chilly in the reception/sitting/dining area which was all one room, and I had hoped they'd light the fire as it was still raining and rather gloomy in there, but no luck. Towards the end of my meal, when I was polishing off a pound of cherries, I was joined by a young Japanese cyclist who was most interesting to talk to. Keise had left Japan by bike about one year previously and had been cycling ever since, including passing through Tibet during the Olympic protests. He intended to cycle to Portugal after Santiago and fly home from Lisbon, bringing his marathon journey to an end. His tales were quite fascinating and I could have listened to him for hours, but I was feeling too cold and went to bed to try and get warm although it was only 8:30. An early night was a good idea as the following day I was going to face the dreaded O'Cebreiro, supposedly one of the hardest climbs on the Camino.