Before I start I should show you this rainbows of last night.
Fortunately they were not a sign of bad weather. Today was beautiful if somewhat cool.
Today was the day of big climbs and a long trip, we were anticipating a long day.
We thought we had a good start, getting going at first light but ‘ the Camino’ happened and shortly after leaving the hotel we realized I had a flat tyre so we had to change it.
Once we had that sorted we were on our way, somewhat delayed.
It was cold so we had to wear jackets, and misty.
Leaving we passed the old town of Puebla de Sanabres on our right
On the right the hills were covered in mist
Our first stage to Reguejo was fairly flat so a good warm up on what was to come
On this stage we passed the three Spanish cyclists who we have seen and talked to before – Francisco, Vincente, Miguel. One had a flat tyre and they had stopped to change it. We checked that they were ok and went on.
As soon as we left Reguejo the climb into the mountain began. We climbed for 11.9 km without a break, a rise of over 700 m to Padornelo, the highest point in the Camino at 1350m.
From there we had a step descent to Lubian where we stopped for lunch and our Spanish friends joined us. We got a local policeman to take our photo.
The policeman told us there were two routes from Lubian to A Guidina, the old, more scenic, but steeper and higher 106 or the new National 525. Obviously, since we long ago lost all sence of reasonableness and sanity, choose the 106. Straight out of Lubian this was a 4.3 km climb of over 500m. The policeman was right on both accounts, the scenery was beautiful and we could see the highway route that we didn’t take down below.
The top of this climb was a place called A Canada, which is where we cross over into the Region of Galicia and the Sierra Mountains
From here the scenery takes a dramatic change
We have a long run down to A Guidina.
Then we climb again heading for our destination Laza
Again a big climb, over 700 m but it was worth it for the spectacular scenery.
After a small town of Campobecerros we had to take a rocky path first up and then down towards our destination. This path had its own special difficulty in that not only was it rocky but to our side was this enormous drop off
I concentrated on not veering towards the side as I had no desire to reach the bottom that quickly.
Just before we reached Las a we passed through a village Erirascible clearly poverty stricken
On our way to dinner, walking through the town, we heard a noise
The owner saw us taking the photo and wanted us to picture her potatoes also
At dinner we met a new group of Italians who are walking the Camino and we chatted. Then our cycling friends Mariano and Anna arrived and we had a reunion dinner together.
The reached Lubian last night but could find nowhere to stay and so slept on a floor. They were pretty tired.
All in all a great day. We covered approx 94 km, climbed 2100 m and saw the most amazing scenery of the Camino.
VDLPbyBike 
Today’s scenery is really beautiful, the photos are magnificent. What a hard day of cycling though, all those kilometres and all that climbing. I see you have another day of hard climbing tomorrow. I hope the weather is kind and the cycling goes very well. Mary
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Keep up those positive thoughts Mary. The weather today was perfect. Our Italian friends, who stopped in a different town the previous night got rained out but we missed that one.
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Dermot, it looked like a tough climb today. The light in your pictures from Lazarus onwards is really beautiful.
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Sorry Dermot the spell checker is obviously set to the bible
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Bridie
That was funny, I am struggling with similar corrections every day
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You two are fantastic! Today seemed so challenging and you handled it all and stayed on track with your schedule. Photos are beautiful – we are all enviously! Good luck tomorrow. Love, Breda
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Breda Hi, remember I would never have made it here without you!
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Hi Dad, the photos today look amazing, some of the best of the trip. I hope you get a good dinner and rest tonight.
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Hi Sorcha. Your energy ball saved the day yesterday. In mid afternoon, in mid climb we could find nothing to eat. You saved us!
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It was a spectacular day. Up above that lake you felt like you were on the top of the world.
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts and pictures Dermot ,it makes it so clear why pilgrims undertook this kind of spiritual/physical pilgrimage. You see all that is beautiful in nature but also see all that is various in humanity.- kind hearts, good humour and in this day and age ….a surprising level of squalor! it’s a journey you’ll never forget that’s for sure! Good luck tomorrow – sleep well you’ll undoubtedly need it:-)
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Carolyn It really is an incredible experience and a wonderful, if somewhat challenging, way to see the country.
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Amazing scenery as usual (glad for you but also for me that you took the hard route–easy for me to say, as I’m not logging the km!). The picture of Puebla de Sanabres in the mist looks like a fairy tale. It’s great to have friends along the way, too–nice to see them popping up again here and there. What a big day–fantastic work! Rest well and best of luck tomorrow.
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Thanks Aoife. Really nice to hear from you. Love D
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Hi Aoife. Yes the whole experience is amazing
D
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I’m speechless. Clearly all that training paid off. Well done.
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Steve All I can say is it was a he’ll of a day!
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Steve, it certainly did and I needed it. To put it in perspective, the first hill yesterday was the equivalent of stacking 13 of the Bayview hills, one after the other. The second was worse and this mornings was steeper!
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This is the best section of the route, do you agree?
I’m loving the photos and commentary during your camino! Fantastic!
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Absolutely, it was awesome, like being on top of the world!
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