Up a little earlier as we had a 20+ kilometer day ahead of us. The owners have a bar/restaurant at the main road level, plus a 3 room 6 person hotel (which we stayed in) and the albergue. They had just closed the hotel for the season but opened it for us as we were 4 people. A single person had to stay in the dorms (where you basically need to supply your own towels and sleep sack and sleeping bag, although some will give you blankets). We started off the morning with “toast” which was a toasted half-baguette each…it was huge!
And what’s with pilgrims who think it’s okay to take their shoes off in a bar/cafe/restaurant? Gross.
Our hotel had a water chain from the gutter to keep the water flowing down into the drain instead of splashing about. It does look better than a gutter downspouts (but not as much fun as a gargoyle).
Lost already?
A random vending machine. I couldn’t pass up a chocolate bar that Ken was paying for!
Mandarins orange tree.
Princess Flower. Such a gorgeous colour. Unfortunately hardy in Zone Spain and not Zone Lac La Biche 😕.
Early morning light with a bit of cloud, bit of mist.
Apparently I walked right by these guys without noticing them.
One of the few times I’m in the lead!
Hola, ladies!
Pet me pet me pet me pet me!!!!!
We are starting to see stone horreos. By the way, the “h” is silent.
The tiniest muffin I have ever seen. I mean, what’s the point? The chocolate chip is almost as big as the muffin. But of course I ate it anyway.
The bar dog.
The rain started two minutes after leaving the cafe.
It started pouring and we took shelter in this hay barn. The Snax decided to check it out too.
Time to take off the rain jacket. But it’s off and on all day.
The nasty hill of the day.
If you real close you can see one of the concrete Camino distance markers sort of giving us the finger so to speak.
Always fun to follow the poop spreader 💩!
Is she going to make it?
More to the point, am I?!?
Hello, Dave the Goblin. He’s become like an old friend.
Big reservoir in the distance.
Tell me we are not going up there!
Whew! Nope, we turned right and went down.
Random artist? Lovely bum?
It’s difficult to see but there are four pilgrims sitting on the benches about as far apart as they physically can. Do they smell?
The poor lad in the bus shelter later came up to me and Scott embarassedly asking for tissues as he was having, well, let’s just say issues. We gave him what we had (with a lot of sympathy because what pilgrim hasnt been there at one time or another) plus I gave him some Immodium (after explaining what it was) and was about to say swallow it whole with water when he said “oh jelly”. Yeah, not supposed to chew these ones. We wish him well.
Four leaf clover just sitting on the bench waiting for me.
Almost there. Only five km to go but Antonio had told Ken there was a taxi for the last 3 km, which became a point of focus for little Kenny, especially since it started raining again.
Where is Dave the Goblin?
We made it into Olievrio and decided to to just walk and forgot the taxi.
This horreo is twice the size, maybe larger, than the ones we’ve seen so far.
The mushroom tops on the pillars prevent the rodents from getting to the grain.
They were cleaning the algae off the roof and house using bleach. OMG! Hold your breath as you go by.
What are these wolf posters??
We get down to this spot where the Camino splits off from the road again. The boys take off when I notice a little sign that says there is a temporary diversion and we have to take the busy road. So we decide to call the taxi after all (for 12 euros). Scott decides to take the trail anyway, as it’s not blocked off but we take his pack for him. None of us paid attention to the little sign in the back of this photo warning cyclists there was a 6% grade for 1.5 km.
Later Scott tells us that we would have been VERY unhappy if we had walked with our packs as he found it difficult without a pack. Very steep. He did rub in the fact that he passed a sheepdog guarding his four sheep.
Supper consisted of Caldo Gallego…Galician soup (so good) plus cod for Ken and Antonio and spaghetti for Scott and me. But the boys started playing Russian roulette with Padron peppers. You get a large plate of fried peppers with large flaky salt. Ken says it like a big appetizer plate of chicken wings. Most of the peppers are sweet but some are insanely spicy and you never which you are going to get. Ken says it was fun watching Scott’s eyes bug out of his head while the sweat popped out of his forehead and his face turned fluorescent red. Scott plans on growing them as you can’t buy them at home but you can get the seeds.
There are two other pilgrims in the background. The guy was a cyclist and we had passed him going up the big hill on the way. They were lucky to find rooms here. The town 3 kilometers earlier has a lot of albergues for pilgrims but every one of them was closed. They were being sent to this place (we had reservations) and some of them were being sent to the owner’s mother’s house. The owner was a little miffed that every albergue closed and she wasn’t notified.
Back to our apartment to do a load of laundry in the hopes it would dry by morning. We don’t always have control of the heat in the rooms, which can be frustrating as we are usually pretty damp with sweat when we arrive and are always looking for heat. That usually means a hot hot shower.
VF Britannica Via Campaniensis Voie de Vezelay 2025 