The path crosses frosted fields and up a heavily frosted valley. However, by lunchtime I have stripped off the outer layers and am down to shorts and t-shirt. In frost and in sunshine, Galicea takes us all by surprise with its beauty. We pass a number of farms, some buildings abandoned and crumbling, all with slate roofs, but not tiled, comprising instead huge, roughly rounded plates of slate. They make very attractive collections of buildings.
We have walked at different paces. Jon has struggled with his knee since doing the harder route up to O Cebreiro, and is particularly slow on the downhill sections. We stop for coffee, but as the bar has a wonderful home-made empanadas this becomes an early lunch. Jon is quicker after this energy injection, but we all catch up in Sarria. Here disaster strikes. Angela loses her camera between the Magdalena Monastery and half a kilometer down the road. We go back twice, but without success. She had almost a thousand photos on her memory card which she was about to change. It is a tragedy for her, and she is obviously devastated, but she manages to be cheerful for much of the rest of the day.
I am in no great hurry to complete the camino. I don't want it to end, and yet I am torn as I also feel ready to return to England and work. The group, though seem in more of a hurry than me and for a mixture of reasons: Nico to catch up with his daughter; Angela to walk on to Finistere; Jon because, when his knee is not hurting he wants to walk for as long as daylight affords. And so we put in one long 30km + day after another.
By early evening we pass the 100km post (stone posts have been counting down the kilometers since we entered Galicea). The evening sun is beautiful, and finally we come to a modern albergue which has a huge plate glass window overlooking the valley and the sunset. We have this to ourselves, which is fantastic.
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