12 September 2026
Distance: 13.26 miles/21.34 km
Elevation gain: 1052ft/320m
Elevation loss: ~2200ft/675m
Time: 4h 41min
(I guess I was right, I was in fact too tired to finish my post last night so I apologize for the delay!!)
It’s funny how in just 7 days my perspective of what is considered a “long walk” has been immensely skewed. My first day doing 15 miles (24km) felt like a huge accomplishment. That was quickly taken over by a 20 mile (32km) day the very next day. 5 days and 66 miles after that, and we fast forward to today: 13 miles felt like a breeze.
We were blessed with a gorgeous, cool morning leaving from O Cebriero, and an unmatched sunrise from the top of the mountain. The day’s impending downhill was in the back of my mind but I did my best to focus on how beautiful the day was.
We bumped into a Spanish friend of ours that we’ve been seeing the last few days on the way out of town. The three of us walked together for a while, had breakfast together and shared stories of the pets we’ve had and have. Before we continued, he confided in us that he will likely be taking a taxi from the last town before the downhill begins to Triacastela, due to his nagging knee pain.
We saw him off, took a beer and Fanta break, and then started our downhill.
And honestly? It wasn’t that bad! My dad and I split off for the most part and went at our own pace. This has been one of the few times I’ve listened to my music during the week I’ve been on the Camino so far (I listened to the albums Shore by Fleet Foxes and Never Enough by Turnstile, in case you were wondering). I zig zagged my way down to alleviate the load on my knees, while my dad ran down (yes, RAN DOWN). He was usually waiting for me at the bottom of the hill though.
Overall, a lovely day to end the week, and a bittersweet farewell to the friends we’ve met along the way, as we will be taking a rest day in Samos, the town halfway to our next stop, Sarria, therefore separating us from the main group of people we’ve been traveling with the last few days. More on that in the next post, along with the stress of booking hostels for the next couple of days…
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