Once again we stayed in a really nice albergue that was a fairly new build and had a private room with en suite that all looked very new.  Since leaving Astorga most of the houses have been built in stone and slate (which they seem to have in abundance judging from the stony paths), with the roofs of the buildings having very intricate slate patterns, including the chimney stacks.  We had a pleasant evening meal of Galician soup, ribs and I had Santiago cake (a local speciality cake) and Laurence had goats cheese with quince!  The cheese was very mild and had little goaty taste but it was nice with the quince jelly.  It definitely needed a few crackers.

We woke this morning to find ourselves in a fog.  It had rained overnight and the cloud was sitting around us.  We could see very wet people walking past the window even though it wasn’t actually raining.  We wrapped up against the cold (1ᶱ at 8 o’clock) and wet and set off just after 8 o’clock.  We knew we had another hard day of mainly climbing up steep paths to reach the highest point of 1335m.  In spite of the weather we really enjoyed the walking, probably because it wasn’t raining, only misty and very damp.  We quickly covered the one kilometre up to the border and crossed into Galicia.  There was an immediate transformation in the footpath for the better, and the granite way markers were every 500 metres or so and had an LED counter showing the distance to Santiago.  We could only assume that they are operated by solar power.

We walked up to O Cebreiro, a tourist destination as it has played an important part in the resurgence of the camino.  Its parish priest, Father Elias Valina Sampedro, was the first to paint the yellow arrows, and when asked what he was doing, re replied, “I am preparing a great invasion!”  Sadly he died in 1989 just as the invasion was starting.  The place is also famous for the small dwellings that look like pixie houses where the locals store food and wine.

We continued on to Linares where we stopped for coffee and met a nice young woman from Canada.  We chatted for a while and she told us about how she’d been to hospital in Leon because she had a kidney stone from not drinking enough – and she is a nurse in Vancover!  The hospital told her it was a common complaint on the camino.  Laurence and I ordered another coffee, topped up our water before we left and made sure we kept on drinking as we climbed higher and higher up to Alto de San Roque at 1267m.  Here there is a statue of an unhappy pilgrim holding onto his hat.  We continued upwards till we came to the highest point at Alto do Poio at 1335m.  To put this into perspective, Ben Nevis is 1345m.

We walked on, still through the fog and mist, until we came to Fonfria.  We only had about four more miles to go, mainly down but on really good paths, so we decided to stop for lunch at 12:15 pm.  We had just finished eating when two Australian women came in who we’d met when we all stayed at the same albergue in Villares de Orbigo, eight days ago!  We remembered each other immediately.  After exchanging a few camino stories, we prepared to leave while they said they were staying in Fonfria tonight.  We left saying we would probably see them on the road tomorrow.

We eventually reached Filloval and our albergue about 2:30 pm.  Despite the weather and the hard climbs, we’d had another lovely day walking.  We have another nice private room and have done all our washing in the machine – only hope it dries by tomorrow!