Under most circumstances, I'd consider 17km a short day. This terrain really makes it tough, though.
We entered Pontevedra today, the final province of our trip. We're 68km from Santiago, which we intend to cover in the next 3 days.
We visited the Cistercian monastery in Oseira today on our way to Castro Dozon. We took a one-hour guided tour that was very interesting. Most of what exists today was built after a fire in 1552 burned everything but the church. More recently, it went through a 90-year period of abandonment. It has been a National Monument since 1923 and is undergoing restoration. The dozen or so monks currently living there occupy a fraction of the space.
Up until yesterday we hadn't seen a single north american on the trip. When we got to the albrgue in Cea, there were 14 US college students registered. They are studlying in Alicante and came with a guide who is taking them from Ourense to Santiago. I don't think these kids had a clue of what was coming when they signed up. They are hiking in tennis shoes! He marched them 40 kilometers today, through some tough terrain.
We ran into Martin, the Brit we met 10 days ago just before Dean & Marian arrived. I thought he'd gotten well ahead of us because he walks long days. Apparently those long days took a toll and he spent 3 days recovering in Ourense.
No comments:
Post a Comment