Stage 38 - Requejo de Sanabria to Lubián (17.6km): 06/10/2014 07:10
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| The Camino is down there somewhere but we had to detour away from the railway works |
It has
been a strange day in which we made great headway when we least expected to and
then found ourselves walking kilometres that hadn't been in the plan.
We had
been a bit concerned about today, given that we had to climb to the highest
point on this Camino. In the end it wasn't nearly as difficult as we had
anticipated.
The day
started with a choice. We could turn left and enjoy the tranquility of a forest
path or take a shorter route up the road before turning right under the
motorway onto an old path and later back under the motorway to meet up with the
forest path. We chose the latter as we wouldn't appreciate the forest path in
the dark. We never did see an arrow for the right turn and, as we had no idea
how far up the road it was, we just kept walking. At least we were going in the
right direction.
After
about six kilometres of constant climbing we came to an official signpost with
an arrow at a Y-fork (see the photo). Unfortunately the
arrow seemed to point between the two roads but eventually we decided to go
left. After about
350 metres a truck driver sent us back to the main road. A
short distance further on there was no ambiguity about the arrow, and we turned
left to rejoin the Camino.
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| The confusing arrow |
While
we may not have followed the intended route we had made very good time. After
that we followed a winding path onto the mountain pass. Our fears about a difficult
climb were unfounded. In fact we didn't believe we were at the top as we
were still waiting for the really steep section.
The
only bit of excitement of the day was meeting two cows with calves coming down
the path towards us. Pauline does not like to be close to cows, particularly
when they are accompanied by calves. We stood aside and they passed without
bothering us. A few minutes later we heard a noise behind us and there were the
cows and the calves coming back up the hill in something of a hurry.
Again we
stood aside and they passed but this time they were being followed by a
fellow Peregrina, a young woman from Sochi in Russia. I think her name is
Yulia. She had good English and we exchanged pleasantries before she went on
ahead, as she was much faster than we were.
We were
sitting down to coffee in a bar just after the mountain pass at 10:30am, about
90 minutes earlier than planned. With the rest of the day's walk downhill we
expected to be in Lubián well before 1:00am. That changed when a sign indicated
that we had to remain on the road as the traditional path crossed the new
railway line that is under construction. The detour added at least 2.4km to our
walk, including an unexpected uphill section, and ensured we were still on the
road when the rain started.
We had
heard bad reports about the Lubián albergue but decided to check it out for
ourselves. A notice on the door indicated that it was closed
"provisionalmente" which we took to mean that it had bedbugs.
We had
just passed a casa rural and so we went back to it. We hesitated when we heard
the price but the thought of wandering around in the rain looking for an alternative
convinced us to stay.
That
turned out to be great decision. After we showered we went off to find a
bar to have something to eat. When we got there we found Yulia, an older
Englishman, two Spanish couples and a young Spanish man, all without a place to
stay. The other three establishments with accommodation were all full. The only
solution was to share two taxis to take them to the next albergue, 23km further
on in A Gudiña.
It
seems that rail construction workers have taken over all the accommodation in
Lubián.
725km
completed, 230km to go
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| Lubian church |
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| Lubian church interior |
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| Not back to nature as we had hoped |
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