Villafranca to Ambasmestas

Today was the first of 2 days of significant climbing.  We left Villafranca at 7:20 a.m. under cloudy skies and just at the end of a rainfall.  While it was breezy and cold way up in the hills, it remained dry.  On the way out, Diane took a shot of the type of flower gardens most people here have, since most people live in typical Spanish row houses/apartments...

It was in Villafranca that we met our ami francaise, Marcel, again.  We first saw him in St. Jean, where the Camino begins.  He walked into the cafe where we were having our dinner, wearing this colourful hat, and I exclaimed out loud: une chapeau magnifique!  That is, a magnificent hat!  He remembered me, and I insisted on a photo together...we could be related, don't you think?

Anyway, no sooner did we cross the bridge leaving Villafranca and we began a steep climb that had us going from 500 meters to 930 meters above sea level.  I can only describe the beauty and climb via the pictures below...this was our world for almost 3 hours.

We just kept climbing higher and higher...

 

As you can see above, the town of Villafranca got smaller and smaller.  And while dark clouds threatened rain off and on - note the darkness/light contrast below as we go higher - the rain held off.

Finally, we reached the highest point of the climb, and what better place to take a shot of the both of us, sweating madly, but happy to be on level ground for a while...

Today there were really 3 options to choose from: the traditional route (which we took), or a route along the old highway through this part of Spain (which involved little climbing), or a much longer and steeper route yet which is not well marked.  We opted for the traditional route.  Aside from the old highway below us, we also followed a new superhighway far below with multiple tunnels...

Of course, what goes up must come down, and coming down - as any hiker knows - is so much more taxing on feet and knees and calves and quads and...am I missing anything?  The way down took us through forests of cultivated chestnut woods, the kind of chestnuts you eat...

As we got further down towards the level of the highway, the vegetation changed and we navigated our way through some narrow trails...

When we arrived at the first village since leaving Villafranca, known as Travadelo, we stopped for coffee and celebrated our climbs with a number of other pilgrims.  The fellow you see in red sitting beside me is Sietse from Friesland, whom we met for the first time today and who knows and has been in the village of my birth, Hijlaard, and knows the church and home where I was born!  The fellow at the far left is from Ottawa, where Diane grew up, and we met a couple of Canadians from Orangeville and Toronto respectively during today's climb.  And we met Malcolm, a South African who lived a couple of blocks from Yale Secondary in Abbotsford for 12 years, right in our neighbourhood.  So all kinds of memories and familiar connections today!

Today was one of our shortest days, actually, and tomorrow will be even shorter distance wise, because of the climbing involved.  We either had to go 31 kms today, or do this part of the Camino over 2 days.  Because of the location of villages and availability of places to stay, our travel agency has us doing it in 2 days.  Just as well, since tomorrow will be a steady climb of 700 meters (2300 feet) over 13 kms.

We are now in a fairly new small hotel with a huge balcony and a large clean room.  Dinner won't be served until 8 p.m., and in this small place of 50+ people we don't have much choice but to wait until then.  So it feels like a bit of another rest day, and because of the shorter distance tomorrow, we don't plan to leave until 9 or so.  Actually, these last 10 days of our Camino are all no longer than 22 kms at most, making this a very relaxed sort of ending.  We intend to enjoy each day to the full!

Distance today: 17.1 kms

Time on the road: 5:00

Total distance to date: 624.9 kms

Walking days remaining: 9